Firstly, even in the best case scenario, DSL costs about five times as much per megabit as cable, and is really no more reliable (and often much less).
Secondly, Verizon has basically stopped maintaining/improving their DSL network because they are now focusing on FiOS. I had a great deal of direct experience with this when I was a DSL customer in East Cambridge. The service worked fine for a year until one day when it didn't, but since Verizon basically never runs new pairs (too expensive, not worth it to them, also paying to run a new set of copper wires would basically defeat the purpose of selling DSL to begin with, since the whole point of the technology was to allow them to transmit bits over the existing copper wires). Once you start having problems, they often go on forever, since the phone company will just keep switching you to different pairs until they find one that will just barely support the level of service they sold you in the first place (or they will silently downgrade you--this is what happened to me, much to Speakeasy's chagrin), and there are more bad pairs than good ones, of course, since they aren't adding any new ones.
As someone who for years stuck with DSL so as to avoid becoming a Comcast customer, I have to say it's not worth it. Even if you are one of the lucky ones with reliable service (you probably live close to a central office) it's still a huge ripoff.
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Date: 2010-03-29 01:03 pm (UTC)Firstly, even in the best case scenario, DSL costs about five times as much per megabit as cable, and is really no more reliable (and often much less).
Secondly, Verizon has basically stopped maintaining/improving their DSL network because they are now focusing on FiOS. I had a great deal of direct experience with this when I was a DSL customer in East Cambridge. The service worked fine for a year until one day when it didn't, but since Verizon basically never runs new pairs (too expensive, not worth it to them, also paying to run a new set of copper wires would basically defeat the purpose of selling DSL to begin with, since the whole point of the technology was to allow them to transmit bits over the existing copper wires). Once you start having problems, they often go on forever, since the phone company will just keep switching you to different pairs until they find one that will just barely support the level of service they sold you in the first place (or they will silently downgrade you--this is what happened to me, much to Speakeasy's chagrin), and there are more bad pairs than good ones, of course, since they aren't adding any new ones.
As someone who for years stuck with DSL so as to avoid becoming a Comcast customer, I have to say it's not worth it. Even if you are one of the lucky ones with reliable service (you probably live close to a central office) it's still a huge ripoff.