What is the difference between DSL and cable modems?

DSL provides always-available high-speed Internet access over a single dedicated telephone line. Cable modems offer high-speed Internet access over a shared cable television line.

While cable modems may have greater theoretical downstream (from the Internet to the home) bandwidth capabilities, that bandwidth is shared among all users in a neighborhood, and will therefore vary, perhaps dramatically, as more users in a neighborhood get online at the same time.

Upstream traffic (from the customer premise to the Internet) over cable modems will in many cases be slower than DSL, either because the particular cable modem is inherently slower, or because too many people in a neighborhood are trying to send or receive data at the same time - causing congestion in the local cable network.

DSL Advantages:

• Faster than cable modem service during peak usage periods.*
• Based on a month-long benchmarking study by Keynote Systems, DSL was found to be 11% faster than cable modems.
• DSL service is flexible enough to grow with the skills and interests of our users.
• Customers can also use dial-up connections, and access services like email remotely.
• DSL is as reliable as your phone.
• DSL speed stays consistent, as opposed to the shared systems used by cable companies where speed may decrease as more users sign up.

Cable Modem Disadvantages:

• Reliability and privacy issues, since bandwidth is shared over the local cable network.
• Shared bandwidth can cause slowdowns due to local network congestion.
• Cable modem services often do not support a wide variety of Internet applications.

DSL Information: