CNET recently posted an article about how the cost differences between DSL and Cable is changing how people decide which Internet service is best for them. There was a time when DSL and Internet Cable were price competitive and we just looked more at the specs in deciding which way to go. But the market is changing:

A new kind of digital divide is emerging in the U.S. broadband market. On one side are middle-income and price-sensitive households, which tend to favor DSL service offered by phone companies. On the other are more affluent families, which gravitate toward higher-speed cable modem services." Read More at CNET

I actually started out with DSL almost seven years ago. Unlike the larger cities, here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota our communication infrastructure is small enough that we can quickly absorb new technology at a much faster pace than larger cities. We had DSL and Internet Cable a couple years before most of the folks living in such places as Los Angeles or even Kansas City went broadband. Broadband service through the local cable company, Midcontinent Communications, wasn't too far behind and eventually I switched my broadband service over to them.

The reason I switched from DSL to Cable was that while my DSL connection was good (max near 700K), cable offered much higher speeds. Currently download speeds of 8 Mbps are available through the cable company. The reason I've stayed though has less to do with speed and more to do with the fact that the connection is much more reliable than what I had with DSL. I can only hope that reliability of DSL services have improved since my absense.

However, as the CNET article states...it sure seems that Internet services through cable is getting more and more expensive. If it goes any higher, I wont' for a second entertain the though of switching back to DSL. Someone has to give those old telephone companies some new business...