Cable VS DSL.. Let the Champion be Crowned
Oct 09 '00
Since living in Baton Rouge, I've used both DSL and Cable modems. This editorial is a comparison of my experiences with both types of high speed access. (Your expeience may differ)
Price - Cable modem and DSL are comparative in price. I paid 39.95 per month for my cable modem and @home email account. This included leasing of the modem. I currently pay 39.95 for my DSL access, which includes my bellsouth.net email account. I received free installation for both (I got the special on the cable modem, and I installed the DSL myself) Both services offered discount rates for the first 2 months as well.
Reliability - Cable Modem - Since subscribing to the service, my cable modem company has been sold and bought by 2 other companies. At first it was run by TCI of Louisiana, I never had a problem with being connected. I did experience some "slow times" when a lot of people were using the service at one time. AT&T then bought the service from TCI, again same general service, always on, slow periods. Then Cox Communications bought the service from AT&T just 2 months after they had purchased it. At this point, service experienced interruptions daily. At times, it would be off and on for over 4 hours a day. I went 11 days straight without service at one point. Speed slowed to a virtual crawl, and honestly thought I'd do just as well loading web pages with a dialup connection. Downloads of course would still be fast but I hardly ever experienced the download speeds they boasted when advertising.
Reliability - DSL - Always on. Haven't experienced down time at all yet. Speed is 2 times as fast as the cable modem since I don't share a bandwidth with anyone else. (Cable modems downfall is shared bandwidth)It's owned by one company, BellSouth. I won't have to worry about change overs and company swaps every couple of months. A good stable company to stand behind it.
Customer Service - Cable - Worst I've ever experienced. Average "waiting time - hold time" when calling, 30 minutes minimum. Expect rude operators and very unhelpful operators as well. They don't know anything, cannot let you speak to anyone who does, and I think most of the supervisors who work for them are the dumbest people who work at that job.
Customer Service - DSL - I had 2 bad experiences with the DSL sign up process (See my DSL review for full details) But it was made up for by the fact that my home phone service is through BellSouth and I've had nothing but pleasant experiences with them. And the Tech-Support people are very helpful and friendly.
Availability - Cable modem is more readily available in this area. However it will not allow servers (most businesses) to use it.
Overall - Cable modem in this area is a bad idea. Cox is too cheap to buy the bandwidth and make surfing faster and more worthwhile. I don't think they're willing to invest in the personnel and training to better equip their customer service. DSL is very reliable, has a firmly rooted corporation behind it and has the time, money and experience to serve you better. I'd recommend DSL any day over cable, if DSL is available.
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Member: Chris Patton
Location: Baton Rouge Louisiana
Reviews written: 156
Trusted by: 96 members
About Me:
i LiKe CHeeSe! =)Well not really, but I do web design and Flash.
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