DSL May Be Slower, But is it Better?

Cable broadband service on average is much faster than DSL.

According to the SamKnows data, DSL connections average 5.4 Mbps, while cable broadband connections average 13.5 Mbps. But according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) research, DSL connections on average deliver “…download speeds above 80% of the assigned speed tier more than 80% of the time. By contrast, a significant fraction of cable connections received less than 80% of their assigned speed tier more than 20% of the time.” The NIST research also took a look at congestion factors between the two dominant broadband access methods in North America and found some differences. “While, DSL ISP networks suffer predominantly from congestion in the ‘last mile’, distribution of congestion in cable ISP networks exhibits a great deal of variability, with a few cable ISP networks congested mainly in the ‘last mile’ but the majority congested elsewhere, in the ‘middle mile’ or beyond,” said the research authors, Daniel Genin and Jolene Splett.