You’re obviously online, or you wouldn’t be reading this post. But perhaps you’ve considered changing your ISP or even the type of Internet service that you subscribe to. While you won’t be able to get the 40 GB/s service that I mentioned a few posts back, let’s take minute to examine the various services currently available in most markets, and which one is right for you.
Dial-Up Service - This has been the good ol’ standby for many years. However, with the advance of high-speed access services, dial-up has actually seen a decline in subscribers, based on a percentage of the marketplace. Dial-up typically costs around $10 a month, and includes several e-mail addresses as well as some personal home page ability. The speed of dial-up is always the limiting factor, as it is limited by the FCC, as well as the physical capabilities of the analog telephone service. While most systems claim 56Kb/s as thier official operational speed, it’s really a misnomer, because the FCC limits the service over telephone lines to 53 Kb/s.
DSL & Cable - Essentially these high speed services operate within the same price range and speed range as well. Starting around $25 a month, they can go as high at $50 a month. Both DSL (which stands for digital subscriber line, by the way) and cable services have a high and a low speed version. Either one totally blows away the dial-up speed. There is simply no comparison. However, the limitations to DSL and cable Internet services is that you must be close enough to either the telephone company switch (in the case of DSL), or within a certain distance to the main cable company broadcast site. Neither of these services can effectively be used outside of a typical radius from any small to medium sized city.
That leaves only one high speed option for those located in a rural environment. Satellite systems have been steadily taking off over the past few years, primarily because of newer upload technology that is not dependent on a phone line. These services can range in price anywhere from $50 a month to over $100 a month, depending on the provider and the speed range you are looking for. If the price wasn’t inhibitive enough, there are also some drawbacks to satellite service. As with all digital satellite services like TV, the Internet can experience service outages in the event of severe weather, heavy rain, thick cloudcover, etc. It also requires a clear line of sight to the service satellite, located in a somewhat southerly direction, depending on your location in North America.
That wraps it up for Internet service options. Come back next month (in a few days, really) and we’ll talk about another tech support subject.