posted by CoxEngr
Qwest's latest attempt to improve their market share in the high speed data arena is to try and market their connections as "dedicated". However, as many people know, those copper wires that DSL depends upon only travel a couple of thousand feet until they hit what's called a DSLAM, where that connection becomes a shared connection with everyone else in the neighborhood.

To put this into perspective, it's clear to see that you get a faster connection from cable. If you look at Broadband Report's speed test archive, where they let real customers run speed tests, you can see that out of 128 domestic and international broadband providers, Cox ranks 22nd, where Qwest ranks 68th. In fact, it's interesting to compare the main cable and telco rivals. Top cable companies rank as: Comcast - 12th, Cablevision - 16th, TimeWarner - 24th, and Rogers - 26th. Telephone companies rank as: Verizon - 48th, BellSouth - 65th, and SBC - 72nd. This paints a pretty clear picture of what customers are really experiencing. These results are based on hundreds of tests by individual subscribers of each service.

If you dig into the dedicated versus shared argument about cable and dsl, you can find some sober rational discussions on the topic. To pick a few:

• PC Magazine: "DSL providers will tell you that each DSL connection is dedicated to a single user, whereas cable connections are shared. In reality, overall performance often has more to do with your location and service provider than the type of broadband connection you have."


• G4 TV: "Bandwidth is ALWAYS shared at some point."


• SpeedGuide.net: "A common misconception is that residential DSL is dedicated bandwidth, while Cable modems provide a shared medium."


• Salon.com: "The argument that cable modem connections are inferior to DSL connections because the bandwidth on a cable link is 'shared' is disingenuous at best. The entire Internet is based upon shared bandwidth. ...the DSL connection ultimately terminates at an Internet router, at which point the multiple streams are merged together into one or more shared upstream connections."