DSL vs. Cable

Posts: 35 · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 5:07 pm Post subject: DSL vs. Cable

Stirring up the pot a little bit....

Wanted to start a thread about which is better -- DSL or Cable. To make it relate to this forum, VoIP subscribers will have a unique view about this. Cable is the obvious choice if you want to dump POTS completely. As VoIP becomes more popular, more people will switch to cable modem service. In order to keep some of this market share, the POTS companies should start offering DSL without telephone service.

Another of my beefs is that I believe these companies (DSL and Cable) should offer their service as a "transport only" service -- i.e. no content. I subscribe to Comcast high-speed cable internet. I would much rather pay five bucks less per month and do without homepage hosting or email addresses -- I can supply them myself.

Just a thought.

Posts: 18 · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 7:40 pm Post subject:

Actually, I have been researching various options for High Speed Internet in India and I just found out one provider that provides DSL without any land-line. They do their own wiring from the closest hub, main disadvantage being that if you are not within a certain distance from the Hub, you cannot get the service.
Another thing that I found was really catching on in India was WLL (Wireless Local Loop). I think it is a really neat idea. Kind of portable, because all you need is the Wireless Terminal and you can take it anywhere within the city and hook up a phone to it and you have your own home telephone line, very similar to the ATA from Vonage for which you need a High speed Broadband Connection.

Posts: 35 · Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 4:15 pm Post subject:

I agree Moto. I have never tried DSL, but from what I can tell it is slower than cable.

I had service problems when it was AT&T Broadband (and who can forget their little tiff with Excite@Home which caused all of the AT&T customers to lose their internet service for about a week. This happened shortly after I subscribed and I was pi$$ed). But almost as soon as Comcast took over the longest downtime I experienced was maybe a minute... and I can't even remember the last time it happened.

Although my cable modem service has always been fast, I really noticed a difference when Comcast doubled the speeds.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 20, 2004 Posts: 2

Being a bit of a network wonk, let me chime in:

All of these technologies are as good or bad as your ISP. DSL is my personal favorite, but it's only as good as Speakeasy (my DSL ISP of choice). DSL with Verizon or MSN is on the same level of quality (not very good) as cable modem. But cable modems is only as good as it's ISP (in my case, Comcast). Ideally, the markets will open up to "raw DSL" which is a DSL circuit without a phone number (Qwest is offering such a service), in which case voice calls are VoIP and you get broadband without paying all of those silly fees to the FCC and your telco/ITU. If "raw DSL" were available with Speakeasy, I'd be out converting all of my family and friends to "raw DSL."

Until then, I recommend DSL over cable simply because cable modem's quality of service, latency, and throughput is vastly lower than DSL in most cases. But again, any of these technologies are only as good as your ISP.