Quote from osorico:
nitro,
DSL is NOT point-to-point like T1. The difference connection-wise, between cable and DSL is...
DSL connects to a DSLAM which is Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer at a central location that links DSL connections to ANOTHER high-speed connection. The connection speed to the DSLAM is usually stable. After connecting to the DSLAM anything can happen.
Cable Internet on the other hand feeds bandwidth which is shared between users in a given area. Hence the potential for performance degradation when many internet customers in the same area are online simultaneously.
T1 is indeed point-to-point. Performance depends whether you are using the entire T1 bandwidth or fractional.
Bottomline...
DSL provides stable connection speed to the DSLAM. (aka the distance requirement.) After connection to the DSLAM, performance degradation can and does happen.
Cable performance depends on the amount of bandwidth being fed to a specific geo area. Degradation occurs when the amount of bandwidth being fed to a given geo area is being used in real-time in the geo area at a given time.
DSL has a bottleneck called a DSLAM. Cable has a bottleneck called a cable company feeding too little bandwidth to a specific geo area. T1 has no such bottlenecks.
Osorico