Broadband or Bust

According to Aesop, the slow and steady tortoise beats the fast and flighty hare. But wouldn't it be great if that dang rabbit hunkered down and delivered on its promise? That's what consumers hope will happen in the world of high-bandwidth Internet access. Folks at home who want a fast connection to the Net must choose from a bewildering array of broadband technologies, among them ISDN, cable modem, and an alphabet soup of DSL varieties, including ADSL, SDSL, and G.Lite. But for people with money to burn, new superfast technologies make huge promises that sound awfully enticing.

Last November, researchers at the University of Washington and engineers at Microsoft figured out how to move data at 2.4 gigabits per second (a gigabit is one billion bits) over an Internet-style network. That same month, designers at Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs developed an optical networking technology that transfers data at more than 1.6 terabits per second (a terabit is one trillion bits). That's over 25 million times faster than a 56-kbps modem--or about half the speed of Superman.

Meanwhile, most of us still live with tortoise-like analog modem speeds. Achieving state-of-the-art bandwidth velocity at home means paying for cable modem service or DSL (G.Lite, a technology that might make DSL easier to install, has not yet been deployed). These two early broadband leaders promise that for about $50 a month you can hit the Web at data transfer rates up to 1.5 mbps (1500 kbps). Both remain connected to the Internet full-time, so you need never wait while your PC dials up an ISP. Both are available in densely populated areas and are creeping into the countryside.

But as the hype about speed builds up, users' broadband experiences don't always keep pace. People who can buy the services in their vicinity--and many still can't--may survive a traumatic installation only to discover that they've bought a fast portal onto a slow Internet.

We took a long look at the state of high-speed access, and the results surprised us. Road bumps notwithstanding, most cable modem and DSL users seem delighted with the connection. In a survey of nearly 2500 PC World readers, we discovered that most broadband users give these services the thumbs up (see "Happy High-Speed Customers"). "I think [cable modems are] the greatest thing since sliced bread," says John Sly, a governmental employee in Boca Raton, Florida. To separate truth from fantasy, we take a systematic look at broadband installation, cost, speed, security, and availability.