A rchive Date
[ 11-06-2000 ]
Category
[ Information Technologies ]
sub-Categoy
[ Networking ]
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[The Difference Between ISDN and Cable Modems
ISDN and cable modems are completely different animals. You get ISDN access from your phone company, and it uses the same copper telephone lines that come into your house now. The difference between ISDN service and plain old telephone service is a digital switch at the main telephone office. That switch makes ISDN lines capable of higher speeds. Actually, they are capable of being twice as fast as a 56K modem: 128,000 bits per second is the maximum ISDN speed. The other advantages of ISDN are faster dial-out speed and better, more reliable lines.
To get ISDN you have to do several things:
1. Buy an ISDN modem. (We recommend 3Com's Impact.)
2. Arrange for ISDN service from your phone company.
3. Sign up with an ISP that provides ISDN service.
All this probably will cost at least twice as much as your existing service. In the San Francisco Bay Area, Leo was spending about $60 per month for ISDN access before cable modems came to his town. In addition, here in the San Francisco area, the local phone company has been known to charge .01 cent per line, per minute, during business hours - and that's on top of the monthly fee for ISDN service.
Cable modems are very different from ISDN. The data comes into your home via the same cable that brings you cable TV, but it can be used to both receive and send data. Cable modems receive data very quickly - often well over 1 million bits per second. That's more than 16 times as fast as your regular telephone modem. A cable modem will almost always receive data at least ten times as fast as a regular modem.
Cable Internet access is also nice because you never need to dial out. As long as your computer is on, you are always logged into the Net. The cost of cable is also generally lower than ISDN. That's because most cable companies offer a flat fee for all of their services. In Leo's area, it is about $40 per month for unlimited use. For that price, he got space for a small website, several email addresses, and Internet access.
In most cases, cable modems are a better deal, but they're not available everywhere. You can't just go out and buy a cable modem. You have to get your cable company to offer the service, and most don't because it requires expensive upgrades on their part. You'll need to call your cable provider to find out whether cable modem access is offered in your area. ]
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