Twenty Nickels
If you save twenty nickels, you’ve made a dollar
by
Raymond Matkowsky
www.datastats.com
email: rdm@datastats.com
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Issue 1-09 January 2009
Are You Paying For Speed That You Don’t Need Or Don’t Have?
I had to wait about five years for telephone high speed internet service to come to my neighborhood. In the meantime, I depended on dial-up service. This was satisfactory in most but not all situations. The only problem was downloading and uploading very large files.
Well establishd neighbors are not at an advantage
Since I was located in a well established neighborhood that had excellent telephone service, I found it rather strange that high speed internet was not available to me. Making an inquiry of a friend who was a telephone company engineer, I discovered that older communities have a more difficult time getting high speed lines than newer ones. You see, older neighborhoods were originally strung with less pure copper lines and the amount of impurities along with the distance from the central offices affected transmission losses. This is also probably the main reason why you are not getting all of the speed you pay for.
I say this with certainty. There are so many variables involved, no one is going to get full quoted performance 100% of the time. I doubt that you are getting full performance 50% of the time. I pay for 1 Mbps service. I only get 750 kbps consistently. Sometimes it is slightly more, sometimes slightly less, but generally it is three quarters of what I pay for.
Cable vs. DSL modems
Ah, but you say you have cable. Theoretically, cable modems are capable of 30 Mbps but most service plans fall into the 1 Mbps to 9 Mbps range. All service providers “cap” their bandwidth in order to protect their networks and sell different size plans. What cable companies do not tell you is that everyone on their system, computers and TVs, are part of the network. Your speed is dependent on how many people are using bandwidth at once. A DSL line may only be able to reach 10 Mbps, but each location has a dedicated line. According to the FCC website true DSL and cable speeds are fairly comparable.
What do you do?
So, as a consumer, what do you do? First remember that each business is different and there is no one solution that fits all. Then assume that DSL and cable will provide you with the same level of service. J.D. Powers and Associates rates DSL customer satisfaction slightly higher than cable. PC Magazine rates cable customer satisfaction slightly higher than DSL. Assume it is a tossup and make your judgments based on your own experiences.
If you already have a service, go to speedtest.net and determine what your actual speed is. Do this several times over a week to eliminate the possibility of one time variables. If your actual speed is close to or below the “cap” of the next lowest plan, you may want to downgrade. If you are nowhere near your present “cap” upgrading will most likely not give you any meaningful increase in bandwidth.
If you do not yet have a service, you may want to buy the lowest level plan and see if that meets your needs. If not you can upgrade very easily.
If you are a typical small business with 1 to 5 online computers, you will probably not even notice any differences at the low level of service. At 750 kbps and with at least two online computers (some wireless) active at the same time, I have not noticed any degradation in performance. If your business has more than 5 computers or is involved in heavy internet usage, neither DSL or cable may be satisfactory. You may need something greater such as a T1 line. Only pay for what you need.
When you are buying internet service, you are buying a commodity. There are a large number of vendors selling that commodity. After you have determined the service level you need, make your final decision based on price and vendor reputation.
Shop around. I have seen quotes from a low of US$19.99 to US$59.99 per month. You may be able to save several hundred dollars a year by doing so. Every penny saved is a penny in profit.
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A Call For Reader Input
We at Data Stats would like to see this newsletter become a reader supported forum for help questions, answers, or general comments on anything appearing in this newsletter or Data Stats’ website. If you have a question, answer, or comment to contribute send them to me at newsletter@datastats.com. I will try to publish it here.
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Raymond D. Matkowsky
Copyright © 2009 Raymond D. Matkowsky
Data Stats
P.O Box 672
Old Bridge, New Jersey 08857-0672
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