Is DSL dedicated, while Cable modems shared bandwidth ?
A common misconception is that residential DSL is dedicated bandwidth, while Cable modems provide shared medium. This is only partly true – for the segment between you and the ISP’s central office, and that is rarely the bottleneck of the connection. From the Central Office out to the Internet, both Cable and DSL share your ISP’s backbones, whatever they are. Residential broadband is oversubscribed, whether cable or DSL – usually with 10 times as many subscribers as the maximum backbone capacity. Since the backbones are most likely the bottleneck of the Internet connection, and it is shared medium, both residential DSL and Cable may experience slowdowns at peak times.
