The battle between broadband Internet service providers simulates a boxing match in the ring. In one corner sit companies such as Comcast, with cable Internet, that boast of their fast connection speeds. In the other corner are companies such as AT&T, with DSL, offering lower prices for their services.
In the world of college students, this Mike Tyson versus Evander Holyfield match comes down to a decision of priorities. Which is more important: speed or price?
SPEED RACER
Junior Nolan Maloney, an English and telecommunications major, is constantly on the Internet checking his e-mail and playing online games, he said.
"I'm usually online 45 hours a day," Maloney jokingly said. "I would say that's a fair estimate."
Maloney said his roommate chose to use Comcast's cable Internet services.
"She assumed they had lower rates," he said.
But even if the price was lower for DSL, Maloney said he would prefer cable to a DSL modem because he had trouble with DSL when he lived with his parents.
"DSL was always slow and clunky," he said. "I would always lose my connection."
But, Maloney said, the services Comcast offers in Muncie are not always reliable.
"Comcast in this area is a little bit sketchy," he said. "Sometimes, it drops out for days at a time."
Maloney recounted a time when the service stopped working, and Comcast had to go to his home to fix it.
"They came out and fixed it within three days," he said. "We still had to pay for those three days. I feel kind of [cheated]."
According to its Web site, Comcast High-Speed Internet can go up to seven times faster than the slowest DSL service. Comcast uses the example of someone downloading a 20-megabyte file, which is equal to about five MP3 files. It could take someone 20 seconds to download the file compared to a possible 3.5 minutes to download the same file on the slowest DSL service offered through AT&T, according to Comcast's Web site.
The difference comes from the way a DSL Internet service provider works and the way a cable Internet service provider works.
"DSL is constrained by distance," said Mark Apple, regional vice president of public relations from Comcast. "You have to live within three miles of the office to even subscribe. The farther you live from that office, the slower your speed will be."
Meghan Roskopf, AT&T spokesperson, confirmed that customers must live within 14,000 feet of a central office to receive the service. However, with a cable service, the speed depends on the number of people on a network at the same time.
"A cable modem is like a shared network," Roskopf said. DSL is offered through the same dedicated line that one's telephone service is provided through, Roskopf said.
Apple said the number of people on a network is not an issue in places like Muncie.
"The population density is not that great," he said. In cities such as Chicago, there could be issues with too much traffic on a network, making it run slower, he said.
Cable broadband service has consistently been more popular than DSL in the United States, according to the Telecommunications Industry Association.
Both AT&T and Comcast offer broadband services close to Ball State University's campus.
PRICE IS RIGHT
Price is the other major factor in a person's decision of which broadband service to use.
AT&T, with four speed tiers, offers prices ranging from $14.99 per month to $34.99 per month.
Without getting cable television services, Comcast offers its Internet service for $57.95 per month. With television services, the price is lowered to $42.95.
"You get what you pay for," Apple said. "Cable internet is the same as any other product. You can compare it to cars. Some people want to buy a Yugo, other people want to drive something nicer than that."
Roskopf said customers should buy services that are useful for what they do on the Internet.
"If you're just going on to check your e-mail occasionally and you don't use your computer that much, then you could choose a different speed than someone who is on all the time," she said.
Sophomore Brittney Lengerich, a special education major, said price will be the defining factor in her and her future roommates' decision of which provider to use next year.
"We're just going where the money is right now because we're college students," she said.
When they decided to sign the lease for an east-of-campus home, the landlord told Lengerich that Comcast had the best deal for broadband service. However, Lengerich said she would go for DSL if it was the cheapest of the two types of Internet service.
"At home, I have dial-up, so anything is better than dial-up," she said.
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