Cable vs. DSL--which is faster?

CNET News ^ | 4/22/03 | Jim Hu

[Leroy S. Mort]

Cable modems are outpacing digital subscriber lines in terms of connection speeds, as household broadband access continues to increase, according to a study released Tuesday.

The number of Internet users accessing the Web through home broadband connections rose 9 percent between October 2002 and March 2003, according to Net measurement firm ComScore Networks. That brought the total percentage of broadband connected households to 28 percent of all homes with Internet access.

However, despite signs of consumers' appetite for broadband, connections speeds vary depending on whether they use DSL or cable modems, according to ComScore. Individual service providers also showed differences in access speed.

The study said cable modems were 50 percent faster on average than DSL connections. According to data tabulated during February, Cablevision reportedly had the fastest connections, averaging 800kbps, or 13kbps above the industry average. Comcast came in second at 794kbps, Cox third with 688kbps, and Adelphia last with 575kbps. Time Warner Cable, the nation's second-largest cable television network, was not included in the study.

DSL providers showed huge swings in performance. AT&T WorldNet averaged 762kbps, or 63 percent faster than the industry average of 467kbps. SBC came in second with 584kbps, EarthLink was third with 369kbps and Qwest was fourth with 240kbps. Notable omissions from the study included Verizon and BellSouth.

According to ComScore, competition for broadband services will continue to intensify, leading to pricing pressure and greater importance placed on performance.

[Leroy S. Mort]

I get a pretty consistent 1722 kbps downstream and 272 kbps upstream using Comcast Atlanta (nee ATT Broadband Cable) on This Test Site .

Interested in what other freepers are getting....

[Numbers Guy]

Also Comcast nee AT&T

1715, 191 . . . not quite as good as yours, but I'm not complaining.

[Schakaljager]

2010 kbps downstream & 375 kbps upstream using Earthlink Cable connection via Time Warner Cable. Not bad at all.

[Brett66]

I have Cox cable and I've seen a 840Kb/s speed one time, usually it's in the 300-400kb/s range.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

I am surprised CNET would title an article this way. DSL is steady, cable varies. They should know that.

[Pro-Bush]

Comcast Sacto = 1722 kbps downstream and 272 upstream

[July 4th]

1594/170 with Charter. And this is peak time right now...I live in a student neighborhood where a lot of people have broadband.

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

My 56K modem is faster than my parent's cable modem. Strange, but true.

[LibWhacker]

1730/241 with AT&T Broadband in Sacramento. Comcast just bought AT&T's Northern California operation and that change of ownership takes effect next month. So we'll see if it changes our speed as well. A couple of years ago, Comcast used to own this area and we got up to 5Mbps down. Be nice to get that again, but I doubt we'll ever see that again. Not at $50/mo.

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

And no, I don't live in their basement (or their house!).

[Brett66]

I'm at work with a T3 line. It tested at 656/461.

[Leroy S. Mort]

If DSL is steadily low and cable is variably high. I'll take cable. I've never seen a downstream less than 1400 kbps here in three years.

[WSGilcrest]

782/384kbps Earthlink DSL (in safe mode) Used to get about 1300+ down before I had them reprovision me. Got some line noise and I couldn't keep a hook at that speed.

[Consort]

My speed:

.

[Consort]

I'm using Roadrunner.

[WSGilcrest]

p.s. Read an article on this forum a while back about S. Korea. The whole freakin' country's fiber. They're gettin' ten times the speed for $30/month

[LibWhacker]

I've never seen a downstream less than 1400 kbps here in three years.

Yep. I think that if the cable company runs the connection wide open (like Comcast used to do around here), you get huge variability in connection speeds. But if they throttle everybody back to a maximum 1730Mbps, say, they can provide more consistent service. Our speed around here has been a rock-solid 1730ish for months.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Unreal. When I was stationed in Korea in the 70's they were still using crank phones in some places...

[dwswager]

3 years now with Mindspring (Earthlink) DSL, 1500/368 service. I average about 1100/314. I Live faily close to the CO so my service is pretty good and since I got it long ago it is on a second line as opposed to the G-Lite used now on the same pair as your phone service. I orginally wanted Cable Modem service, but were Media One and our area was traded by Media One to Time Warner. This made our area Time Warner's red headed stepchild.