Cable Internet vs DSL for business

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Internet access optionsIt has never been more important for a small and Mid sized business to have access to high speed and reliable internet services, with all the new tools and technology to help a business operate, communication with customers and grow revenue, your connection is vital to your businesses survival.

Telecom and Internet services used by a company today, has to not only take in account the current needs of a business, it must be able to handle the requirements and needs in the future as well.  Meeting today’s needs is Vital to on organization, but you have to lay the ground work to meet tomorrows needs as well.

What this means is that when selecting a Broadband, Internet technology it is not only the highest speeds and reliability that matter,  it is very important to also consider how large a service area they cover and will they support future requirements as well.

When looking at the two main broadband options for small business, DSL and Cable,  we believe that only one of them really hits the target for current and future needs.  Cable high speed internet service seems to provide business with network infrastructure that was build from the ground up to address the current needs of small business and is designed to address the projected needs of  the next 100 years.

How DSL and Cable Technologies Compare

While DSL may transmit data, it is  a technology developed for voice using traditional twisted-pair copper wires.  Twisted-pair technology was a breakthrough when it was originally invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1881, because it eliminating  the  crosstalk and other interference experienced on  telephone calls.  Now, more than a century later, telephone companies have developed the means to send data over those same wires. So Voice and data can be transmitted simultaneously over a single cabling infrastructure, with the data traveling at a different frequency. Since telephone companies had already deployed huge networks of twisted-pair cabling, they naturally became the prime providers of DSL service.
However, Cable high speed Internet service, was developed specifically for the transmission of  data, and a  breakthrough that is far more recent, occurring in the late 1990s when it was originally deployed.  The first know version of  DOCSIS – the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification had emerged.  DOCSIS is a global standard that enables the addition of high-speed data transfer to the existing hybrid fiber-coaxial infrastructure used by cable providers. The most recent version supports the simultaneous delivery of video, voice, and data at amazing speeds that already meet the 100 Mbps threshold.  The differences between DSL and cable run far deeper than their age, for businesses deciding between the two, the following breakdown of key attributes may prove informative.
  • Speed
DSL has made great strides in recent years, with significant improvements in speed. But those increases still may not be sufficient for many businesses. Major DSL providers can today offer speeds exceeding 20 megabits per second – and at least one company has announced speeds of 45 Mbps coming soon. But this is still below the 50 Mbps threshold has become the standard for business. High-speed cable, on the other hand, has not only

been able to deliver that 50 Mbps benchmark for the past couple of years, by has gone far beyond it. Leveraging DOCSIS 3.0, top-tier cable providers are providing 100 Mbps service today, and speeds reaching 250 Mbps are expected in the near future – as early, perhaps, as 2014.
  • Distance
By running over twisted-pair cabling, DSL relies on a proven technology. But it is also a century-old technology, and not one designed with data in mind. While voice calls can be carried vast distances over twisted-pair wires with no degradation in quality, data does not fare as well. In fact, if subscribers are located more than a couple of miles from a phone company’s central office, DSL performance degrades markedly – so much so, that
the service may not be available at all
  • Consistency
With so much of a company’s operations depending on fast, reliable Internet access, consistency is crucial. If the speed businesses expect is not the speed they get, undesired results occur, including degraded video

and Voice over IP (VoIP) quality, sluggish downloads, and slow connections to mission-critical applications and data in the cloud
  • Availability
The distance limitations of DSL mean that for a large percentage of a phone company’s footprint, the service will not be available. This is especially true in rural areas, where the cost
of installing DSL infrastructure, combined with low population density, means that DSL is rarely economically viable for providers. Indeed, some of the largest phone companies in the country can offer
DSL to just 25 percent – or less – of their customers. Since high-speed cable Internet doesn’t degrade over distance, and runs over the same infrastructure that brings cable TV to both densely and sparsely
populated areas, it is available to a far wider customer base; in cities and rural areas alike.
To learn more about your options and how technology can help your business contact us at Randercom for solutions to your business needs.   Call (920) 731-3944 or click here.