Originally Posted by michaelsmith
Since ADSL is through a telephone line, it is slower and less reliable. It provides speeds of 386kbps, 768kbps, 1.5mbps, and sometimes even 3mbps (all download speeds). Cable is becoming a big breakthru because so many people are ditching their landlines and heading to VoIP. Cable is available in 3.0mbps, 4.0mbps, and even 5.0mbps speeds (all download speeds). Cable can range from $42.95 to $99.95. ADSL can range from $19.99 to $49.99. I believe that Cable is more reliable and faster.
I'm calling BS on this. I've used DSL and cable, and I've found in my situation, the DSL to be much more reliable. This may have something to do with the particular providers I've used. My DSL is 3 megabit down and 512k up, so your bandwidth comparisons aren't really fair, either.
One of the benefits I found in DSL is that compared to cable, the latency is *much* lower. Bandwidth is nice, but other than download large files, one of the things that makes high-speed feel fast is the low latency. I would hesistate to even call "speed" the speed, what you've called "speed" is actually "bandwidth"... I would argue that the latency is the "speed."
Compare it to a highway: you can have 50 lanes in one direction, and move a lot of
capacity down a stretch of highway, but the latency is the difference between driving at 50 MPH and 70 MPH.
Chris