Re:Fastest broadband? (Score 1)

In both cases, these bandwidth numbers are meaningless because you're sharing the bandwidth with every other user on the cable or access point.

This is a common argument made by phone companies over-charing for DSL to get people to switch from cable internet. Oddly enough, my residential cable connection (5mbit/384kbit) performs at just about that level. Accounting for overhead, it's spot on. I live in a neighborhood where EVERYBODY is on cable. The node isn't over-saturated, however. The way you commented, it sounds like you are suggesting that the 5mbit connection is shared amongst ALL cable customers on a node. Uh, no. Maybe you have a really crappy provider where you live, but in the four states I've had a broadband cable connection, I've never once had an issue with not getting the bandwidth advertised. (That would be Time Warner, Oceanic, Comcast, and Cox.)

The one thing I will say though, latency tends to be a tad bit higher on cable than DSL/dedicated circuits. Strangely enough though, I doubt most consumers care about a +10ms difference. :)