Which broadband services are most reliable?

In a recent Webtorials.Com survey, we asked about 400 respondents how happy they were with their cable modem, asymmetric DSL, symmetric DSL, fixed wireless and satellite services. They were asked to rank each service on a scale from 0 to 5 and allowed options for " not available " and " available but haven't tried. "

In order to translate these answers into a numerical rating, we assigned each of the six possible responses a numeric value, with 0 for " didn't work " and 5 for " rock solid. " The intermediate responses were " highly reliable " (4), " reliable " (3), " a few problems " (2), and " lots of problems " (1).

Three of the options - cable modem, ADSL and SDSL - all scored very close to a 3.0 rating - the value for " reliable. " Fixed wireless and satellite both came with a rating of 2.65. In terms of the " didn't work " category, cable modem and ADSL did significantly better (2%) than the other three: 8% for SDSL, 7% for fixed wireless and 9% for satellite.

One of the more surprising results of this question was the apparent widespread availability of ADSL and cable modem services, each of which had an 86% availability. Among the respondents, only 8% said they had neither cable modem nor ADSL service options available to them.

Tap the complete survey results at www.webtorials.com/main/eduweb/manfr99/tutorial/index.shtml

Teleworking and the corporate network
Network World Wide Area Networking Newsletter, 07/15/02

Steven Taylor, consultant and broadband packet evangelist, and Joanie Wexler, an independent networking technology editor and writer, team up to bring you this analysis and commentary. Taylor specializes in education and market analysis, and Wexler adds incisive reporting and research. For more detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter, connect to www.webtorials.com, the first Web site dedicated exclusively to market studies and technology tutorials in the Broadband Packet areas of Frame Relay, ATM, and IP.

Feedback and additional topic ideas are welcome. Please contact taylor@webtorials.com or joanie@jwexler.com.

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