Cable vs. DSL

Today's blog entry is prompted by the following email I received:

Marc,
How can I determine what type of Internet service provider is right for my needs? Cable or DSL --- how would you suggest I choose?
Thanks.
Tony

Here are the items to consider, as I see it...

1.  Performance claims.  Cable Internet providers can generally be faster than DSL, for the price.  But not always.  You see, cable Internet is brought to your home using the cable company's standard cable lines.  But, because of the means of delivery, cable companies generally split up a geographic area into "nodes" or "channels", you are actually sharing the available bandwidth with other users in your node.  The cable company can claim faster speeds, but it's not guaranteed, nor is it consistent.  This article at dslreports.com explains the issue further.

In comparison, DSL does not use the same "node" or "sharing" infrastructure -- Internet is delivered to your home over your standard copper telephone lines.  You don't even need new or additional lines... regular phone and DSL signals can be carried across one single line, because a "filter" is added to the line which virtually "splits" it for the two functions.  Higher speed may cost a little more with DSL, but you get all the speed that you pay for.  DSL may never go as fast as cable, and in my experience in rural upstate New York, cable generally has "felt" faster than cable... but in larger metro areas, the higher usage in each cable node may mean you never see the full speed of your cable connection unless your cable company is diligent about creating new "nodes" when too many people end up on one.

2.  Reliability.  By far, DSL has proven to be more reliable, at least here in upstate NY.  My experience is that whenever there's bad weather, if it's going to knock anything out, it's usually cable first.  Seems our cable TV is ALWAYS the first service to go dead, sometimes even before we lose power.  That means no TV, no Internet, and if you choose to switch your phone service to the cable company, no phone service either.

In contrast, DSL has proven as reliable as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) when it comes to always being available.  There have been times when, after serious storms, I was sure that our phone service would be out... yet when I picked up the phone, there was that familiar, reassuring dial tone.  And I can count on one hand the number of times Internet service was seriously disrupted due to technical issues, in the 8+ years we've had it.  On the other hand, our experience with the cable company has always been less than satisfactory...  quite often,when we had cable service, even when the Internet was "up", there would be times when we couldn't get where we were going, and it was usually due to network issues before our requests ever reached the Internet.

3.  Customer service.  While the field technicians for BOTH companies are minimally trained and Internet seems just an "add-on" to the cable or regular telephone service they have known for years, our experience with both lower and upper level cable technicians when trying to solve Internet problems has been downright frustrating compared to the same department at the telco.

4.  Cost.  As mentioned before, DSL may cost more for the speed, but the quality and reliability of that speed is sometimes more important.

5.  Bundles.  Not a big fan of the bundles -- you know, "TV + Phone + Internet".  Both cable and telephone companies offer these bundles (telco usually partnered with a satellite dish company of some kind).  Why?  I guess my main issue has to do with telephone service that REQUIRES the internet in order to work.  Call me old fashioned, but telephone service has proven for a very long time now to be a reliable way to reach someone.  The Internet?  Not so much.  Security issues with the phone service are limited to someone tapping your line.  Security issues on the Internet abound.  But more important is the reliability... twisted pair copper wires have carried our phone signals for a very long time, and they "just work".  But Voice Over IP (VoIP) is just making a call over the Internet... the same Internet that sometimes tells us "website unavailable" when we know darn well that the website is actually up and running fine... just not from our location at the moment.  And then there's the whole 911 issue -- someone must always be sure that the Internet call is routed to the correct 911 locale in an emergency... but POTS solved that problem long ago.  Maybe these are all non-issues, but to me they are important enough not to trade in my regular business and home telephone service to run over the Internet... even if it IS cheaper.

But that may not apply for everyone, of course.

So how do you choose?  I'd go by these guidelines...

• Are you a business?  If so, the quality of the Internet speed, and the reliability of the line dictate that DSL may be a better bet.  If you're not a business, cable becomes more of an option, because you're probably using the Internet more for recreation.
  
  
• Are you eligible for either service based on your location?  Many people can't even GET DSL, because they aren't close enough to one of the phone company's distribution switches.  And folks who have phone at home but no cable TV clearly must use DSL if close enough... and if not, the only choices are the (poorer) services like dial-up or satellite dish Internet.
  
  
• Are you on a budget?  If so, both services are about the same for their base service costs.  But if you want more possible speed for the price, and you're not a business, cable probably wins out a bit here.  But beware -- there's rumor that some cable providers are going to start charging based on your USAGE too, so if you are someone that's going to do a LOT of surfing, video playing, downloading, online games, etc... you want to ask about that.
  
  
• Are you technically saavy?  If not, you're probably going to be making calls to customer support for Internet troubles more often, and that means interaction with more support staff.  Talk with neighbors or friends about what they use, and what their experience has been with the support staff of their provider of choice... see what they have to say.  If you consistently hear "the cable company support staff really doesn't know how to route customer calls, fix problems quickly, or be friendly", then even for the extra cost, DSL may be the way to go.

There's more criteria to go on when making your choice (isn't there always?), but these are the ones that come to my mind first.  Here, we chose DSL over Cable because we're a company so the following applied to us:

• We need consistent Internet performance for our services, and cable could not offer it.  Regular outages, performance that was fast one part of the day but slowed down (a LOT) when the kids got home from school, and regular, unexplained routing issues caused us to choose DSL;
  
  
• We solve a lot of IT issues for our clients, and we have the ability to troubleshoot issues quite far before having to contact the provider.  Whenever we contacted the cable company with either our own problem or a client's issue, they would never accept what we were telling them as a result of our troubleshooting, and would always claim the problem was at our end... until we finally convinced them with the evidence.  Lots of time wasted and unneeded frustration... that we just dont' experience with the upper-level DSL technicians.
  
  
• Cost was about the same, until we requested business class service... then DSL over our current business phone account was the better choice.  And it's all on one bill.
  
  
• Reliability is absolutely key for us... Internet must always be available.  Cable being the first thing to go out around here, while DSL was as rock solid reliable as our phones, made the choice very easy for us and for our customers too.  We do have some customers that are happy with their cable service, but they just don't use it or depend upon it quite like we do.

Clear as mud?  Bottom line... do your homework with the above in mind, ask around, and don't sign any long-term contracts until you've had a chance to experience both if you're really unsure.  Every geographic area is different, so I can't make sweeping recommendations.  There's also "FiOS" to consider too...  where fiber optic cable is installed direct to your home or business, offering a whole new realm of Internet access.  Google FiOS for more information...

But don't EVER let them replace or remove your POTS copper wire lines!

0 comments - Categories: The Internet

Comments