Another Knock Against Cable Internet Access

I have been wary and have always avoided going to any cable operator as an ISP. It's not just the monopoly aspects, but also the neighborhood networking structure they employ. If everyone in the local network is sucking bandwidth, your "faster than DSL!!!" service will be slower than dial-up. Why? Because there is an actual transfer limit on those networks. And if you go over it, your cable company will disconnect you. So far, only Comcast has actually shut down internet accounts, and Cox has only warned people, but all cable companies have a transfer limit in the local hub, so if you have a bandwidth hog in your neighborhood, which they haven't cut off yet, you really should look toward a telecom for your internet access needs. Telecoms' attitudes toward paying customers is summed up thusly:

Some AT&T customers use disproportionately high amounts of Internet capacity, "but we figure that's why they buy the service," said Michael Coe, a spokesman for the company.

Cable internet treated like cable service? No thanks. I'll go with telecommunications companies, please.