What's the cheapest broadband or DSL service and which of the two is better?

Answer 1

DSL is one of a number of types of broadband services. Other common ones for home use include cable, wireless, and satellite.

Low end DSL accounts are generally the cheapest. But you must be within 3 "wire miles" of the telco's central office or a remote DSLAM.

Cable tends to be faster than DSL and is not constrained by your distance to the telco's central office.

Wireless is competitively priced with cable and has similar speeds but you must be within line-of-sight of the transmitter. Weather can affect the quality and speed of connections.

Satellite is much more expensive and the slowest generally. It's available virtually anywhere that you have a view of the southern sky and is often the only option in very rural areas. It suffers from the same issues as wireless due to weather conditions.

Answer 2

Well there are actually 3 choices depending on where you live. The term "broadband" is actually applied to all three or pretty much anything that isn't dial-up.

DSL is probably the cheapest option in most areas but not always available in all areas. Your location has a lot to do with the quality of connection you get. The farther your line is from your telco, the worse your signal will be. In some cases it can be worse than dial-up and you'll get a lot of drop outs if your line is too far away.

Cable usually costs a bit more especially if you don't buy cable TV with it. The transfer speed is generally higher than DSL. As said, you do share bandwidth with your neighbors, but in most cases it is generally not a problem. There are usually different packages you can get from a value to a premium service and as you go up, so does the price, but your max connection speed is higher per tier.

Fiber Optic is the new technology on the horizon. Some areas have it and some don't. If you do, then there's no question this is the best value and speed for what you get. You pay the same price as cable for 3x the connection speed (30 Megs!). I believe Verizon sells this under the name FiOS.

Answer 3

"Typically" DSL is going to be cheaper and Cable is going to be faster. In my area I can get DSL for as low as 14.99 a month, but for $42.95 I can get Cable which is over 12 times faster than the DSL plan for 14.99. Also cable is capable of much higher top end speeds. DSL tops out at 3 to 6 Mbps in some areas and even then you must be close to one of the phone company's hubs to get those speeds.

However, cable tops out at 12 to 15 Mbps. Most of what you'll get will depend on the area you're in. Call your cable company and ask for their plans, costs, and speeds and do the same with DSL providers and compare.

FYI: The claim that cable shares its speeds is no longer true. When cable first offered internet this was the case, but with advances in technology, it's not this way anymore.

Answer 4

Broadband refers to the two cable and DSL. wireless refers to a on the spot broadband connection. in my view, i think of cable is the quickest. I even have used DSL before and the acquire time for cable is plenty swifter. The college the place I paintings has wireless interior the fairly some homes and it could pass slowly reckoning on your connection velocity.

Answer 5

Depends on the area.

Cable or broadband shares a signal with multiple people. The more people, the slower the signal.

DSL is slower, but is faster when there are a lot of people on line with cable.

Answer 6

I've have/had both, had to let the cable go it was too expensive and I'm pretty pleased with SBC DSL, really no diffrence in speed to connect, actually DSL a little faster, being that it only dedicated to you ( cable is dedicated to everyone since it uses the satellites).

Answer 7

um...cable if its not snowing, DSL is cheaper though.