I had DSL for my High Speed Internet for several years. About a month ago I started having problems where it would simply cut out for an hour or so at a time, often in the evenings.

So I ended up connecting to Charter High Speed. At first I had major issues - they spent several visits, but supposedly fixed it (something on the pole they said). I still, however find that several times a day my Internet slows to a crawl.

Then last week my phone line went. Verizon came out - again said it was a pole issue (I am thinking maybe it got struck?). I still have DSL (chickened out in cancelling it just yet) and tried plugging back in. So far so good but has only been a day. I am waiting to see if it stays connected, and if so maybe dump cable internet.

Has anyone else experienced problems where the supposedly twice as fast cable turns out to be slower than DSL?

Yes. Cable was fast as heck during weekdays or late at night, slow in the evening when the neighbors were home.
Cable usually uses a shared pipe of bandwidth between you with your neighbors. If there's a network bottleneck anywhere, you see it when everyone is home.

I've been back and forth, as the phone and cable companies have upgraded their systems in my area. At first, I couldn't cable, DSL was the only choice, but it was flaky. Later, cable came available but the speeds were extremely variable (but always there).
Then the phone infrastructure was upgraded and I could get solid 40Mbs at my house, so switched again.
I have heard that Comcast upgraded their stuff and the speeds are much more stable than they used to be.

In short, what's best is highly dependent on the infrastructure at your specific location.

OP,

Unfortunately, sometimes it depends on your location. My mother lives very far from the nearest CO, and her DSL service is always in and out. For the better part of a decade their local telco has tried everything to make it better with no success. She tried to get cable, but she's too far away from their service area. Last time we talked, she was considering just getting a hotspot.

I've had TWC cable internet for 15 years and I've never experienced this. Seems to be a common internet misconception that dates back to the 90s. Every time I speedtest (and I have an automated script that runs it every few hours), I get at least what I'm paying for, usually 10-20% more. There's no discernible difference during primetime.

Now I have heard that Comcast and some others throttle streaming video apps like Netflix, but that's intentional and not a limitation of the technology.

Well, I experienced it as of 2008-2012 when I switched from cable back to DSL (after 40Mbs service came available).

Again, it's not everywhere, but as i said if there's a bottleneck in the cable system (as there is in my neighborhood's case), then you will see it when everyone's at home.

It is very location-specific what the speeds, issues, and reliability will be at any particular user's location. Whether the lines are above ground or underground, age, susceptibility to rain penetration, and distance from infrastructure all play a role. There is no binary "this/that" answer.

I wish we had 40mps!

I can get 5mps through Verizon (usually runs about 5.6mps), supposedly 10mps through Cable (though usually averages about 4.2 or so). We dont get FIOS or anything like that out here. Usually I hear complaints that Verizon runs slower than advertised, rarely the other way around. I thought they finally fixed that shared pipe issue, but I guess not. I am a bit out of touch with the state of things these days.

DSL proponents were telling me this in teh late '90s, that my 512kbps Cable would never scale because it was "shared". My 30Mbps service Speedtest's at 31-32 all day, every day. DSL lines don't go directly to a backbone either - everything is shared at some point. If you experience slowdowns, it's poor engineering, which can happen with any medium. And it will always happen when the network is carrying the heaviest load There's no inherent' problem with cable.

In aggregate, cable is becoming the dominant delivery vehicle. But if your cable provider can't fix it, it's certainly possible that it's poorly engineered or incorrectly installed. If DSL is better for you , go back to DSL.

VZ isn't going to invest more into aging copper wiring, that's analog DSL and if OP is getting 5 mb service at his network interface/terminal (re-check those stats. if you have access to the "box" vs. results inside at the RJ-11 and make sure those DSL filters are working optimally) If you still have dial-tone/voice service, listen for any static or noise coming across the receiver. But, it does suggested that you are fairly close to the CO's exchange serving your neighborhood, maybe a mile or less, no more than 1.5 mile (there's a formula to calculate that & VZ can tell you ... it doesn't always run a straight line on its run to your house) Chances are, they might be able to get you better stats. on another new/unused twisted pair of wires at the nearest pole/junction box running down into your home (assumed it's outdoors & overhead) Moisture is the worst enemy for these wiring runs & there might be "taps" (not your "wiretaps") on the line that de-grade the signal over the distance.

Head over to DSLReport dot com as there's VZ-staff who will monitor & run tests on your lines, free-of-charge, and escalate or start a trouble ticket if they find issues - to be dispatched to the field CO's tech folks to follow-up upon, as long as the trouble for any slowdown are not with your inside wiring (it will help if you have inside wiring maintenance plans, etc.)

Otherwise, 10MB speed over cable is relatively slow - especially if you are only getting 4 MB only - these days but it is fine off-peak when most users are not all on the same "node" of shared connections - as otherwise, at dinner time or weekends, you would be luck to get 25% or better of your "provisioned" speed. Again, there are dedicated cable forums on DSLReport dot com - they are pretty good at troubleshooting & making suggestions. Is faster cable speed offered ? Perhaps, you need to "lease" a faster, better & different router from "them" or invest in one of the better ones on your own to get at those faster speed.

We moved into a brand new home 9 years ago here, away from faster 4 - 6 MB reliable DSL speed plans then (and cable) to either expensive cable internet & slow 3 MB (downgraded to 1.5 to 1 MB) pathetic DSL speed as it turned out we're too far from the remote DSL CO - exchange equipment, while waiting for the promised FiOS rollout ... it took a while, and then it stopped around the corners from our city block for another year before we got Fios - and, it's been "sweet" since, for 3+ years now. I think we had 15/5 over cable then but not always at those speed, unless it's late night but it was far superior to DSL.

Now, the slowest recommended plan for Fios here is 50/50 Quantum speed & Time Warner Cable is pitching 200 MB Ultimate plan as many ex-cable users, including viritually everyone on our block - have switched to FiOS, easily tell by looking at those distinctive "boxes" on the side of the buildings & houses.

Perhaps, the FAQ's and some of the basic info over at DSLReports dot com can be a good refresher on where to start.

If your cable speeds drop during peak periods - late afternoons/evenings and weekends - but speeds are better at other times like 3AM, your node is almost certainly overloaded. This can be a major battle with the cable co, and it seems to happen more often with smaller cable providers as opposed to giants like Comcast. I fought it with Cox for two years. Conveniently they don't schedule techs to come out evenings or weekends so they never could reproduce it. The cards are stacked against you, so it's up to you whether to deal with the slow speeds or try to fight support for better speeds, or switch to DSL.

It's interesting how VDSL2 overtook cable in British Columbia. Shaw Cable offers 60/3 for $90/month and 120/6 for $120/month and that's the top of it, you can't get more upload.

But Telus offers 100/20 for $88 a month over bonded VDSL2. And I am reliably getting 25-26 Mbit/s upload over that . I work from home and having speedy upload is pretty much mandatory.

Alas it turns out the DSL was Not fixed, as it started dumping me off again yesterday. So I guess I have to choose between sometimes tolerable, but sometimes too slow but always connected, versus fast enough usually, but being dumped off completely a couple of times a day.

I can't help but think there is still an issue with your cable, either at the pole or at the drop in your house. I would ask Charter to come back out and do signal tests at the pole, at the entrance to your home, and then at the connection to your cable modem (speaking of the modem, verify it is a DOCSIS 3.0 modem).

If your signal strength measurements are all within tolerances at all of those points along the chain, and you are still having issues with a new modem, then I would say it is time to argue with the ISP.

But, I am willing to bet it is a local infrastructure or equipment issue. I have had incredibly reliable and consistent performance with Charter here in the STL area.

They have already tied it down to the pole. Supposedly they claim it was fixed. Obviously not. Unfortunately after a while it becomes more costly to have them keep coming out to fix it all the time.

Correction. Telus, at least their mobile arm, is a scam artist so I have cancelled all my services with them and went back to Shaw. Their WideOpen plan is 150/15 which is slower upload wise but it's pretty decent.

I have TWC's old 200/20 plan from before they got bought by Charter and speedtests come in at somewhere lower than 200 during peak periods, so it definitely still happens. However, it's not noticeable in regular use (with the exception of YouTube, where it occasionally stutters at peak times). YMMV, especially if you have a lower speed tier.

Since this thread is back from the great beyond I figured I should update it. I went back to DSL for while. Unfortunately I started having a whole bunch of issues with DSL and my Phone, so back a few months ago I switched back to Cable. For what it is worth they have been a lot more consistent (knock on wood), not always super fast but at least I stay connected now. I know they did some line work int eh area, so maybe that was the problem. We'll see how it goes from here.