Actually that’s true.

I used to do tech support for @home/ATTBI/Comcast.

Cable internet uses a shared bandwidth system. In each neighborhood there is a “pedestal” that contains a router that is allotted a specific amount of bandwidth. Everyone who has cable internet in that neighborhood has a connection plugged into that one router.

If someone in your neighborhood has enough open, streaming connections to consume all of the bandwidth on your neighborhood router it slows down everyone else’s connection because no more bandwidth may be allocated to that local router until that person’s streaming connections drop.

So it only takes one person backing up their hard drive over an FTP connection to hose everyone in the neighborhood.

Given, that’s not a big problem if you live in an area where there are not a lot of power users like, say, Prague, Oklahoma.

However if you live somewhere like Portland or San Jose and you’re on cable, you’re probably looking at DSL speeds most of the time.

One but: like the man says, these kinds of speeds aren’t all that useful…yet. But eventually our network will be upgraded enough for it to start making a difference. By that time, there will be tons more of the “big files” were starting to see more of (i.e. high def movies). The question is, how many more fancy nobs can Cablevision keep putting on its thin pipes before it hits a dead end while fiber leaves it in the dust?

I HATE VERIZON.
Alas I am in an indi area for Cable so stuck with pathetic dsl or pathetic local no name cable company internet.

And I’m sure they pass all the advertising costs right along to me too.

I’d love to switch to another internet provider like FIOS or AT&T but they aren’t available in my area yet.

I haven’t had any issues with cablevision for years. The only thing that would make me switch is if they announced they were going to cap usage like some other ISP’s of late. Thankfully for now, with cablevision, unlimited means unlimited.