Don't Forget about DSL: An Alternative to Cable Modem
By Jonathan Berohn
With all the hoopla about digital cable and cable modems, traditional DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) seems to be the forgotten stepchild of Internet service these days. If you listen to the cable companies, it’s because they offer a cheaper, faster, more reliable product. If you ever actually had cable TV service, you’re probably not quite as convinced.
Comcast, my local cable company, does indeed offer high speed Internet access for $42.95—for cable customers only. If you don’t want to get cable, your price jumps up to $52.95. DSL, on the other hand is readily available for $49.95 or less (I pay Earthlink $49.95 a month). So much for the cheaper part.
But what about the faster part? Comcast claims it downloads faster than 768k DSL and uploads almost twice as fast as DSL. Funny thing is, they don’t list the speed you can expect, and explicitly don’t guarantee anything. And therein lies the rub, as it were. With my DSL my maximum upstream (the speed at which I can send information over the Internet, such as with e-mail attachments) tests routinely over the 256k they cite as their maximum, and my download speed is a guaranteed minimum (I’m always over 768k).
There’s a reason for the cable company’s ambiguity. The potential problem with cable modem is that it’s what the tech guys call a “shared pipe.” That means you share your local service with all the other local cable customers. The more people in your area that use the cable modem service…you guessed it…the slower your connection. Certainly, all the people I know who have cable modem don’t think it’s slow, but they don’t think it outstrips the DSL they switched from.
And then there’s the little matter of customer service. Our cable is out all the time. Good luck trying to get to someone who knows anything. I don’t even want to think about what happens if you have cable modem trouble. With my DSL I can call a live tech 24 hours a day who will even trace problems back to the phone company. All in all, you certainly shouldn’t forget DSL when considering your high-speed Internet options. Oh yeah—most DSL providers will give you a free modem, too. Try getting that from your cable company.
