Cable vs. DSL

Cable is touted as being much faster than DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service. Let's examine some background information. Cable Internet works by using TV channel space for data transmission, with certain channels used for downstream transmission, and other channels for upstream transmission. Because the coaxial cable used by cable TV provides a much greater bandwidth than telephone lines, a cable modem can be used to achieve extremely fast access to the Web.

Cable technology is based on the concept of shared bandwidth. With DSL, the connection is yours and not shared, and you tend to have a more constant speed. With shared bandwidth, the speed fluctuates depending on the number of subscribers on the network.

Let's examine a typical shared bandwidth facility as used by cable companies. Someplace in near proximity to where you live, a hub is installed and all cable subscribers in your area go through that hub. Each person gets a piece of that bandwidth. During quiet times, when there is little Internet use, your speed is good. But, as more people sign on, the speed degrades.

Now, let's use some hypothetical numbers. Let's say the hub can easily accommodate 100 simultaneous users doing average things, such as email or surfing the web. But the cable companies typically overbook a hub figuring that everyone won't be using it at the same time. During the busy times of the day, you could have several hundred users all competing for that same bandwidth. When this happens your speed can significantly degrade.

DSL does not use shared connections and the connection is solely yours. DSL depends on copper wire to transmit and receive data. This is a severe limitation, and if the cable connection is not overbooked, the cable will be faster. When the cable service is running at optimum speed, it is typically twice as fast as DSL using copper wire. DSL access is usually utilizing the same phone equipment your home or business was wired with during the initial construction many years ago.

But, enter the world of fiber optic. In many areas, the phone company is replacing the old copper wire with fiber optic cable. The speed dramatically increases when fiber optic is used. Fiber can connect homes to the Internet at speeds many times faster than the old DSL using copper wire or cable shared access.

We recently switched from cable access to fiber optic service (FiOS). It's about the same price, but the increase in speed is dramatic. While the phone company claims FiOS to be about 3 times faster than cable, due to the congested hub in our area, our experience shows it to be about 5 times faster.

You're going to hear hype from both the cable companies and the phone companies. Is one service the best for everyone? No. If you live in a rural area with few cable subscribers, that might be your best bet. DSL might not be available to you depending on your distance from the phone company's central office. If you live in a congested area, you might be tied into an oversold cable hub and you can see your Internet access slow to a crawl.

If your DSL will use the old copper wire, it will be slower than typical cable access. But if your connection uses fiber optic, that seems to be a clear winner.

Installation of cable is easy. A technician comes to your house, and when he/she leaves, your service will be up and running. Installation of DSL used to be a "do-it-yourself project" and many times turned into a nightmare. Times seem to be changing however, and when our FiOS was installed, it was hooked up and running before the installer left. They also provided a high-speed router so we could connect more than one computer to the network.

There are a lot of variables to be taken into account. If cable or DSL is not available in your area, you will have to suffer along with dial-up. My recommendation is that if you have cable and copper wire DSL, cable is usually your best bet. But if you have fiber optic available, FiOS is the winner hands down.

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