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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here
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To: MikeM54321 who wrote (1584)7/20/1998 3:28:00 PM
From: DenverTechie  Read Replies (3) of 12823
 
There are some fundamental differences between how DSL delivers service vs. cable modems. Some can explain the differences in price.

I'm new to this thread and haven't read all the posts yet, so excuse me if this has already been covered. DSL is a dedicated service technology. If a 1.5 Mb/s service is offered by your phone company, you have 1.5 Mb/s dedicated to your line, guaranteed availability at that speed. Cable modem technology, on the other hand, is a shared service and as usage in the network goes up, the speed goes down. Cable operators are generally very careful about engineering their access service networks to prevent a total meltdown. However, a 30 Mb/s service may only deliver 1 Mb/s or less to your computer when all is said and done. There have been early trial scenarios with systems like RoadRunner where the throughput to the end user was measured at 30 kb/s -- making a normal dial up 56 kb/s modem look pretty good. Today's cable modem networks don't let things slip that badly. However, the general public does not know that the wonderful 30 Mb/s service advertised sometimes is not the individual throughput, but the network throughput. Not so with ADSL, where 1.5 Mb/s advertised is 1.5 Mb/s always.

Another big difference is the cost of the equipment. ADSL, and especially RADSL, the rate adaptive version, is much more expensive than a cable modem. The ADSL service requires dedicated modems at both ends of the circuit, not just the subscriber end as in cable modems. Telephone company also has to install splitters in front of the central office switch to send the data on its way instead of going through a voice port on the switch.

I'm a professional engineer working on "last mile" solutions for telecommunications companies nationwide. I would be more than happy to answer technical questions the thread would post to me.
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