Cable/DSL "shared" access myth (was Re: [TriLUG] Port 25 blocked)

[Jeremy Portzer]

On Tue, 2004-05-18 at 16:07, J. "Spydir Web" Powers wrote:
> bellsouth now offers fastaccess "Xtreme DSL" for I believe $34.99 a 
> month, which gets 3Mb down and 384Kb up.

That was indeed the discussion that started this thread.  Did you bother
to read the other posts?

Your "belief" on the price is wrong though, the fact is that the price
is $44.95/mo. according to
http://www.fastaccess.com/content/consumer/products.jsp .  This appears
to make it directly competitive with RoadRunner which has the same price
and bandwidth.  Note, however that the higher DSL bandwidth is only
available if your phone line supports it; TWC's cable modems support the
same bandwidth throughout their network.

Also, there is a $99.95 cost for the modem, a $35 DSL activation charge,
and a $35 self-installation fee (or $150 professional installation).  
Not to mention the requirement to have a phone line too.   Some of these
charges can apparrently be waived with signing of a long-term contract.

Cable does not require contracts (yay!), doesn't have any
self-installation charges, the modem "rental" is included in the
$41.95/mo. charge from Earthlink (or 44.95/mo. from RoadRunner), and
there are no requirements for a phone line (though TWC can provide phone
service if you wish).

> Also reading your post I can't help but think you're being payed to say 
> that.  I'm not saying you're some secret advertiser or something, I'm 
> just saying you SHOULD be one ;-)

No, I'm not an advertiser and I'm slightly offended that you suspect I
am.  The primary purpose of my post was to try to dubunk the myth about
'dedicated' access, a portion of my e-mail which you didn't address. I
wasn't trying to *sell* anything with that.  I was merely trying
articlulate how ludicrous the myth is when you analyze the actual
technology.  There's nothing *wrong* with DSL's technology, it's just
not inherently any better than cable. 

As I said, Xtreme DSL looks like a good deal if you can handle the
caveats mentioned above, which may be worth it if you covet a static
IP.  (Personally, I use dynamic DNS which has served me well; one
disadvantage is lack of proper reverse DNS.  Does BellSouth provide
reverse DNS for Xtreme DSL customers?)

Regards,
Jeremy

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