Celia Therapy

Coaxial, DSL, fiber optics, kbps, Mbps… There are tons of terms and numbers thrown at you when you start shopping for broadband internet service. The question generally comes down to whether you want your internet from your cable company or your phone company. Comcast and Verizon are the two giant broadband internet service providers in the country, and they both want your business- badly. So with all these terms and numbers, should you really just flip a coin to decide? Lets take a look at the major factors to consider when choosing your broadband ISP. Since we’re talking about high speed internet service, we should probably start with, you guessed it, speed! Verizon’s main internet service is DSL. DSL uses your home’s existing telephone lines to deliver internet service at speeds significantly higher than dial up. Because the signal is coming over traditional copper lines, there is a limit to the speed you can achieve. For many people, DSL speeds are fine. As the internet becomes more multimedia driven, however, many may find that DSL doesn’t cut it. A big step up from there is Comcast’s high speed cable internet. This service comes in through the same coaxial cable you use for cable tv. This line has much higher information capacity than copper phone wire, so your speeds are at least twice as fast as DSL, often several times faster. Faster still is the new FiOS service from Verizon. FiOS is short for fiber optic service, and uses special fiber optic lines available in certain areas. Fiber optics allow for higher speeds than traditional cable internet, however Comcast’s PowerBoost feature allows for bursts of speed comparable to FiOS when downloading large files.