Cable Internet Review

It has gotten progressively easier for Americans to get online over the years.  Early internet service providers, or ISPs, offered little in the way of speed or features.  Today many of the same companies – and a host of new ones – make the entire Internet available at blazing speeds using "always-on" broadband connections.  The best of these companies include email accounts, storage space and plenty of software to create your own media and publish it in a flash.  You can upload videos, download movies and share in the online music revolution that has changed the business model for an entire industry.

For a long time, cable television was essentially a one-way street – you could order the occasional PPV movie, perhaps, but the TV was hardly an environment for robust interactive exploration.  As cable companies added bandwidth and improved their infrastructure, however, cable began to evolve as a viable alternative to traditional DSL broadband.  It didn't take long for cable Internet access to find its way into the marketplace and make a splash with outstanding performance and reasonable prices.  Today cable ISPs are growing more common and popular, and it isn't hard to guess why.

The engineering behind the cable Internet technology is fairly sophisticated.  Cable television signals were once carried using traditional copper twist wiring, but recent years have seen an explosion of high-capacity optic fiber instead.  Pipelines such as these can carry extraordinary amounts of bandwidth directly to your door without the need to install any pricey parts.  All you need to get high speed cable internet is a simple box known as a cable modem.  Included free with most services, your cable modem acts as a gateway to the Net, managing downloads, uploads and television signals so you never have to worry about sorting one data stream from another.

The speeds can be exceptional.  Different cities and companies offer different capacities for throughput, but it's not unusual to get up to 8,000 kilobytes per second (kbs) downstream and 500 kbs upstream.  What this means in layman's terms is that you can download a song off iTunes in a matter of seconds, and broadcast a webcam live at a silky smooth 15 frames per second (fps).  Some services offer even greater speeds, up to and including the kind of professional connection used by major corporations for real-time, full-screen video.  If you are a gamer or simply a fan of media-rich applications, cable broadband service such as this may be nothing less than a godsend for your efficiency.

Prices for cable broadband are dropping all the time.  The truth is that after the initial capital investment of laying all that optic fiber, many of the cable companies are today reaping the rewards of existing infrastructure.  As DSL services and satellite broadband grow cheaper, cable broadband has been forced to drop in price to stay competitive.  Today many of the mid-level cable Internet services are available for under $50 a month, and the rates are only improving.  As speeds increase and more companies enter this crowded marketplace, you will undoubtedly see those monthly bills shrink as well.

There are some surefire ways to get even lower prices, however.  Cable companies didn't begin as ISPs, of course – they began as entertainment providers.  Although they have expanded their offerings greatly, television remains their core business and the heart and soul of what they do.  Therefore it's easy to get a lower rate on cable broadband if you bundle it with some of the other services they offer, such as phone and television.  A number of the major players in this sector offer outstanding rates if you are willing to house all three services through them – not the most safely distributed model, perhaps, but a great way to save.  You may also be able to extend their "introductory rates" indefinitely by threatening to switch providers – even the lowliest phone operators are often be empowered to maintain your low bills for another six or twelve months at a time.

Cable Internet access is the fastest way to get online from your home.  Use our free cable ISP lookup tool to find and compare cable Internet providers in your area.