Speed of cable vs. dsl vs T1?

My cable ISP (Comcast) currently provides 6 Mb/s, measured a few minutes ago in excess of 7 Mb/s.

Yes. What is the price AFTER the initial period?

What do you intend to do with your broadband access? All of these download speeds are more than sufficient for anything on the web, email. If that is all you want, then subscribe to the cheapest service. Anything else, you need to evaluate the upload speed.

Q

Hello,

I am looking at speeds for cable, dsl, and T1. I think I have it right based on my reading. But I was not sure if I might be making a mistake about the unit of measure.

Does this seem right?

Cable: 4.0 Mbsp down, 384 Kbps up DSL: 1.5 Mbps down, 384 Kbps up T1: 1.1 Mbps down, 1.1 Mbps up

If these speeds are correct, the fastest would be cable. I was surprised that T1 was not faster.

Does this seem right or are my units of measure wrong?

Thanks,

Bob

ergobob@sonic[REMOVE].net (Hymer) wrote in news:cHh_e.477$ snipped-for-privacy@typhoon.sonic.net:

At the moment, Qwest sells me a 7Mbps DSL line.

Most cable is migrating up to 5-6 Kbps (Kilobits per second) downstream and ..5 Kbps or so upstream. If you getting much less than that, $45 starts becoming expensive compared to DSL at maybe $30 or so and slightly less bandwidth.

A DS1 (T1) runs at 1.544 Mb/s. ADSL and cable modems can run at a variety of speeds, some faster and some slower than a DS1. In my own case, my modem runs at 5 Mb/s down and 800 Kb/s up, so it's more than 3x faster than a DS1 for downloads, and 1/2 DS1 speed for uploads.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the reply. I was asking about this because I came across a deal for Comcast Cable for $29.99 for 12 months, no contract. I also have access to T1 in my apartment building and currently have DSL. But, both the T1 and DSL are more expensive.

I think that the cable with 384KBps up and 4 MBps down sound great for $29.99. Would you all agree?

Bob

"Hymer" wrote in news:Kuj_e.493$Aw.7056 @typhoon.sonic.net:

Well since it's no contract, why not give it a try - cancel it if you don't like the service : )

A little clarification on T-1 (aka DS-1). T-1/DS-1 was invented approx. 40 years ago as a method of transporting 24 analog voice conversations on a 4 wire circuit. Its raw speed is 1.544 Mbps, bidirectional. Usable speed is 1.536 Mbps as 8Kbps is used for syncronization. (24 x 64Kbps ea =

1.536Mbps) Data capabilities, either Full or Fractional T-1, were added later.

Typically used by businesses that can afford the cost, and need the "guaranteed" uptime, and 7x24 repair, that you don't get with DSL or cable.

--reed

Hi Guys,

I agree - go with the cheapest service. The Comcast deal is 29.99 for 12 months, no contract, and goes to their normal rate of something like $45/mo. after it is over.

I am just uploading and downloading documents for business. But most of the time I am just using the Internet in the usual ways.

I just wasn't sure if I was missing the unit of measurement (byte vs. bit) when looking at the various services.

Thanks a lot,

Bob

Brain fart. ;) Of course - that K should be an M etc.

5-6 Kbps? That's slower than dialup. Perhaps you meant Mbps?

Would that T1 be exclusive to you, or is it shared with every other apartment? If it's shared, it probably would be slower than dialup.

Works for me - I'm paying like $46 ($3 of which is modem rental) for my cable (4.8/463). But you have to consider the price after the initial trial period rather than just the bait price. $40 for 4/384 seems fair enough and a $30 trial is a bonus (I got 6 mos at half price with mine). If you have critical need for access, DSL might be more favorable (should be less down time than cable).

Do you realize in practice the DSL speeds advertised? Cable might come at the cost of a $100 service call if you do not now have cable television, and the $29 per month might be a short term price at a long term price not much different than you pay for DSL now. The difference in 1500Mbps down and 4Mbps down is largely immaterial since it is very rare that the servers providing download will move more than maybe

70-100KB/s (700-1000Kbps). I see the equivalent of 6Mbps only on a very small set of servers for single file downloads, FWIW. Q

Hi Bill,

I am now paying $42.99 for DSL 384 Kbps up and 1.5 Mbps down.

Cable at $29.99 for 384 Kbps up and 4 Mbps down sounds very attractive to me.

Do you agree?

Bob

Those numbers are reasonable, but can vary. I get 6 Mbps down on Comcast cable. DSL can vary depending on the quality and length of the copper line connecting you to the telephone switch gear. Your mileage may vary.

A T1 has two big advantages - the bandwidth is usually guaranteed while Cable and DSL guarantee almost nothing.

Second, the bandwidth is symmetric meaning that you get the same for uploading or running a server. If your usage is web browsing and file downloads, then this does not do much for you.

Another thing you should check on is the customer service of the companies. Ask some people who live in the area what their experiences have been.

Actually, DS1 (T1) bandwidth is guaranteed only for the path to the ISP. Once there, you get into shared systems again. The same thing happens with ADSL as well. While you may have full bandwidth to the DSLAM, from that point on, you're on shared resources, with considerably less bandwidth than the aggregate total of all the ADSL lines.