The Best Broadband ISPs in America

Soaring bandwidths, lower prices, innovative applications: Good broadband Internet service has become cheap and ubiquitous, and it's only going to get better. Within a few years, today's "high-speed" service will seem as slow as yesterday's 9600-bps modems. Some cable providers already offer 30-megabits-per-second connections, and with the advent of high-speed fiber-optic connections to the home, 100 mbps may not be far off.

Which raises the question: What will you do with all that bandwidth? Certainly, e-mail and Web browsing work just fine via today's broadband,

But burgeoning consumer services--including high-definition television Programming, on-demand video, VoIP telephone service, online gaming, videoconferencing, and online file backup--benefit from a wider pipe. According to industry experts, in the next five years cable and DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) will continue to dominate Internet access to the home, with lower-cost DSL ultimately taking the lead, though they'll both be challenged by fiber optics and wireless. Antiquated dial-up service will fade away. Other broadband technologies, including satellite, power-line, and cellular, will remain minor players, though a few will find a niche market.

In addition to exploring the future of connection technologies, we examined today's broadband and dial-up offerings. We surveyed more than 9300 PC World readers and PC World.com site visitors to find out which providers offer the best performance, features, customer service, and overall satisfaction. (For complete survey results, see the chart.)