SL Beats Cable Modem in Prime-Time Internet Performance Duel;
Based On Over 150,000 Performance Measurements on the Networks of At Home and Pacific Bell
Business/High-Tech Editors
SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 17, 1999--Keynote
Systems, the recognized authority on Internet performance, today
announced that DSL outperformed a cable modem during peak-usage
evening hours in a month-long benchmark test of over 150,000 web-page
downloads from 40 popular web sites.
The test results also show that World Wide Web pages downloaded
much slower over cable modem than over T-1 connections and that
cable-modem performance deteriorated during evening hours when peak
residential use of the Internet occurs. Keynote conducted the tests in
the San Francisco Bay area throughout April over an asymmetric DSL
connection (128/384 kbps) to SBC's Pacific Bell (NYSE:SBC) network,
over a cable modem connected to the At Home network (Nasdaq:ATHM)
through a cable system operated by AT&T's TCI unit (NYSE:T), and over
T-1 connections supplied by AboveNet Communications (Nasdaq:ABOV),
Exodus Communications (Nasdaq:EXDS), Intermedia Communications' DIGEX
unit (Nasdaq:ICIX) and Savvis Communications.
The median download time over DSL for the 40 web pages was 3.55
seconds in April during the hours of 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Pacific time
which are peak personal-use hours according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
This result was nearly 11 percent faster than the median of 3.97
seconds over cable modem during the same period. Although cable modem
outperformed DSL during business hours with a 3.68 second performance
versus DSL's 4.30 seconds, cable-modem performance degraded by 8
percent during the evening hours while DSL performance improved 17
percent. Keynote also conducted the same performance measurements over
four different T-1 connections which performed 36 to 48 percent faster
than DSL or cable modem.
Keynote's performance results for DSL, cable modem and T-1
connections during the April 1 to 30 test period are summarized in the
table below (smaller numbers are better and indicate faster
performance).
-0-
*T
Seconds per Web Page Performance
-----------------
During Peak During Change at Peak
Personal Hours Business Hours Usage Time
(5 pm - 11 pm) (8 am - 5 pm)
Internet Connection
DSL (128/384) 3.55 4.30 17 % Faster
Cable Modem 3.97 3.68 8 % Slower
T-1 (Typical Connection 1.83 2.36 22 % Faster
At Work)
*T
Each performance figure is the median of the individual
measurements in its category with a 90-percent statistical confidence
interval that does not overlap the confidence intervals of adjacent
categories.
Keynote has posted several graphs on its web site at
keynote.com comparing DSL and cable-modem
performance over several days during the test period.
About Cable Modems, DSL, and T-1
Cable Modems and DSL provide Internet access at competitive
prices to residential users. PCs connected to the Internet via cable
modem over a TV cable share a common network at the neighborhood
level. This means that as more people in a neighborhood acquire and
use cable modems, overall web-page download performance in the
neighborhood can deteriorate, especially during evening hours when
residential use of the Internet peaks. Cable modems can support peak
bandwidth of 2.8 million bits per second.
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) utilizes an existing telephone
network and provides each user with a dedicated line to a
central-office POP (point of presence) where the actual connection to
the Internet occurs. The asymmetric version of DSL, which is typical
in residential environments, supports different bandwidth depending on
the direction of data flow with typical bandwidth guarantees of
128,000 bits per second for uploads and 384,000 bits per second for
downloads.
A T-1 connection operates over a dedicated leased line to an
Internet access provider with guaranteed available bandwidth of 1.54
million bits per second. T-1 connections are typically employed in
business environments to connect many users to the Internet
simultaneously over the same line.
About the Test Results and Methodology
Keynote Systems used its automated Keynote Perspective(TM)
service to measure how long it took to access and download web pages
and their components via industry-standard HTTP (HyperText Transfer
Protocol), the same protocol used by the Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) and
Netscape (NYSE:AOL) web browsers. The tested web pages belong to the
40 web sites comprising the Keynote Business 40 Internet Performance
Index which is an industry-standard metric and benchmark of the
overall health and performance of the Internet that is published
weekly in The Industry Standard and other leading business and trade
publications.
About Keynote Systems
Keynote Systems is the world's leading supplier of Internet
performance measurement, diagnostic and consulting services to
companies that operate e-commerce web sites. The company markets
Keynote Perspective, a global real-time service that measures, assures
and improves the Quality of Service of e-commerce web sites around the
world. The foundation of the service is an extensive network of
strategically located customizable software measurement agents
connected to the major Internet backbones in 90 locations worldwide
plus a sophisticated operations center for collecting and
disseminating Internet performance and availability data. Keynote
customers include over 800 of the world's busiest and most successful
e-commerce web sites and hosting companies -- including Amazon.com
(Nasdaq:AMZN), CDNow (Nasdaq:CDNW), Compaq Computer (NYSE:CPQ), Cisco
Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO), Dell Computer (Nasdaq:DELL), DoubleClick
(Nasdaq:DCLK), Exodus Communications (Nasdaq:EXDS), GeoCities
(Nasdaq:GCTY), Intermedia Communications (Nasdaq:ICIX), National
Semiconductor (NYSE:NSM), and The SABRE Group (NYSE:TSG) -- which use
the service to ensure competitiveness and improve customer
satisfaction.
For further information about Keynote Perspective, or to schedule
a free one-week comparative performance appraisal of a web site, visit
Keynote's web site at keynote.com or contact
the company at Keynote Systems, Inc., 2855 Campus Drive, San Mateo,
California 94403, telephone 650/522-1000, fax 650/522-1099, email
info@keynote.com.
Keynote, Perspective, and The Internet Performance Authority are
trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property
of their respective owners.
--30--MC/se*
CONTACT: Keynote Systems
Gene Shklar, 650/522-1011
gshklar@keynote.com
or
Lindsay PR
Mary Lindsay, 408/984-7242
mlindsay@sjm.infi.net
KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS COMED
INTERACTIVE/MULTIMEDIA/INTERNET
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