Which Is Better - Cable Or DSL?

Many consumers are asking which service is better, cable or DSL, in order to decide which service to subscribe too. Although many would argue that there is no clear winner, there are generalities that can be compared to make an informed decision.

DSL offers download speeds from 768 Kbps to 6 Mbps, while cable download speeds range from 4 Mbps to around 16 Mbps. DSL upload speeds range from 128 Kbps to 768 Kbps, while cable is 384 Kbps to around 1.5 Mbps. So what does all this mean? The fastest DSL service is better than the slowest cable service. In some areas DSL will be superior to cable for some users. This is not the most common situation, as cable offers faster service to more users due to the nature of the cable network and the distance dependency inherent in DSL technology.

Cable Internet uses shared bandwidth. This means that in a given residential area, all the users are sharing a set amount of bandwidth. If only one person is using the Internet, they get it all (within hardware limitations). If 500 people are using it, the bandwidth is shared between them. At peak times it becomes possible for DSL to be faster than cable, as more people are sharing the cable network. Again this is an extreme example as most people will never experience slow downs due to network congestion, or if they do they wont realize it as the slow down is so slight.

Cable appears to be the better choice over DSL in most cases, but it is worth taking the time to research the local services before purchase.

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