The world of high speed data is full of misinformation, used to fool YOU, the potential customer. As users of the Internet, many of you may remember the promises offered by service providers years ago when you first connected to the Internet: unlimited access, stable rates and stable service. Excitement followed and everyone signed up with these providers in a rush to become part of the online world. As such, you may also remember that most of these promises were just ploys used to sign you into lengthy service contracts that gave you mediocre to poor service at best. Now that the world is entering the next level of high speed data transfer, it is important that you are able to discern fact from fiction. This page is designed to give you the most accurate representation of the high speed data world. 

Their are two main camps of service providers: 
Cable modems and DSL.  

5 Myths About Cable and DSL Internet Technologies

Myth 1
The speed of hybrid fiber coax (HFC) cable and DSL Internet access services are comparable.

Fact: DSL Internet access offerings typically are not as fast as those offered via HFC. Depending on the DSL provider, service levels can range from 128Kbps to 7Mbps downstream from the Internet to the user while upstream service levels from the user to the Internet can range from 128Kbps to 1Mbps. Over HFC, service levels can range from 400Kbps to 10Mbps downstream and 128Kbps to 10Mbps upstream. Service levels depend on service agreements offered by each cable system operator per market, and depend on whether the access is for residential or commercial use. But typically, HFC has more bandwidth available than DSL.

Many homes and offices cannot get the higher speed DSL service because they are located too far from the telephone company's central office. DSL circuits are prevented from maintaining high-bandwidth connections past relatively short distances, such as 18,000 feet. In contrast, HFC technology provides all customers equal access to high-speed services.

Myth 2
DSL connections are "dedicated," whereas HFC cable connections are "shared." As more users are added to the cable-based Internet service, the speed of a user's Internet connection decreases.

Fact: All connections to the Internet, from nearly any provider, are shared at some point. In fact, the Internet itself is a network of networks, shared by millions of users worldwide. The only dedicated portion of a DSL circuit exists between the user's home or business and the telephone company's central office. Beyond that point, DSL subscribers are on the telephone company's central office. Beyond that point, DSL subscribers are on the telephone company's metropolitan network, shared with other DSL, data and telephone subscribers. The user's connection then is routed to an Internet Service Provider (ISP), where it is shared with all other ISP subscribers before being transmitted to the Internet. Therefore, both DSL and HFC technologies provide a shared access to the Internet - but in very different ways.

"Shared versus dedicated" really asks "What is the overall performance of the Internet connection?"

1. ATVC's HFC network has been largely rebuilt over the past few years and is designed with growth in mind. The network is highly scalable, enabling expansion of available bandwidth to meet increasing customer demands without major network upgrades. ATVC can add an additional channel for capacity, or create a new neighborhood "node," allowing bandwidth to double for a given group of users.

2. High-performance cache servers reduce the need to retrieve frequently requested content (popular website pages) from the Internet, further enhancing the user's online experience.

3. ATVC customers connect to the Internet via a very high-speed Tier 1 backbone connection that is linked via fiber optic directly to the internet.  This is much different from what our service areas are used to with their service providers connecting through multiple backbone providers to reach the internet.   

Myth 3
Because customers within an HFC neighborhood node are using a "shared" network, one user can more easily tap into the data stream of another local customer.

Fact: Cable networks are as secure as phone networks. Neither network is any less secure than the other. Currently, many cable systems use proprietary technologies. These technologies are inherently difficult to reverse engineer. Although cable modems share a common cable infrastructure that may serve many customers, each cable modem is addressed individually. In order for someone on the same cable segment to eavesdrop on another customer's data conversation, they would have to access the much more complex radio frequency (RF) signal by completely reverse engineering the proprietary cable system - a highly unlikely scenario.

Using the DOCSIS standard, ATVC's HFC specifications will guarantee user data privacy across the cable network by encrypting customers' data traffic flow. With Baseline Privacy Interface (BPI), ATVC controls distribution of encryption keys to its customers' cable modems from its master telecommunications centers and hub sites. Policing and filtering functions are used to reduce risks from attacks targeted at a customer's PC. These policing capabilities secure a customer's data via a state-of-the-art data encryption standard (DES) algorithm.

Myth 4
When a cable connection is delivering digitized video, voice and high speed data simultaneously to the home or office, the cable modem user will suffer from "congested" bandwidth, unlike a DSL user.

Fact: Because of the inherent ability of hybrid fiber-coax networks, cable companies can assign dedicated frequencies for delivering each video, voice and data service without conflict. Thanks to the 862MHz capacity of ATVC's network and plant, additional bandwidth is reserved for the next generation of services yet to be developed. Cable networks can do this because they can deliver much more bandwidth to their customers than telephone lines can. Telephone lines are limited to approximately 1MHz of bandwidth, which must be shared between voice and data services. Since cable services all use distinctly different channels, you can watch TV, talk on the phone, and surf the Internet simultaneously without impacting any individual service.

Myth 5
DSL is a new digital connection technology.

Fact: DSL technology comes in a variety of flavors, some of which are delivered over the old copper, twisted-pair wiring used for Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). DSL was created to squeeze more speed and capacity out of this existing wiring system, which was designed for low-speed, low-capacity voice communications. Much of this wiring may have been installed decades ago. In contrast, HFC cable architecture is relatively new. An HFC network can deliver high-speed, high-capacity video, voice and data services to homes and businesses without relying on the local telephone network.

Decision Time

    Our goal is that this will help you in deciding on a high speed service provider.  There are no wrong decisions, only informed and uninformed ones. Our staff has provided you with as much information as possible to make an informed decision. No lip service, no dishonesty, no exaggerations. We invite you to verify this information for yourself.  For one very simple reason.  When you discover that we were telling you the truth (while others are only trying to sell you their service by any means necessary), you will decide to choose us as your service provider.  If you still have any questions whatsoever, please e-mail us at techinfo@atvci.net and one of our engineers will respond to your query as soon as possible.  What other service provider offers that?

 We look forward to hearing from YOU, our next valued customer.