Will VoIP Refuel Cable vs. DSL Battle?

What do you think? Will it?

When DSL first was rolled out it was riddled with problems. The telcos did their part to slow things down, giving the cable companies a major head start. But DSL is making a comeback, and new offerings, and with higher speeds, less restrictions are coming down the pipe.

Is the battle brewing, and will more savvy users of broadband at home make the switch?

Comments

[Chad]

I've been using a DOCSIS 1.0 Cable modem w/ TWC as the service provider for 3 years now. The price is $40/mo (w/ a digital cable package) and I get great download rates. From the beginning I've had rates > 5mbs and still have it. It seems some areas TWC has restricted users to a max of 2mbs but either they haven't in my area or they're using QoS do do the restriction (DOCSIS 1.0 Cable Modems do not support QoS - i.e. not guaranteed a minimal data rate but can also be used to limit the max data rate.)

Anyway on to the VoIP section. I think VoIP comming in will drive cable even more than it has in the pasted. With DSL it's better for them to bundle a phone service w/ the DSL service as an attractive market. With Cable you've still had to deal w/ the local phone company (unless you wanted to go completely cellular.)

I switched over to Vonage a few months back and love it. I told Alltel to take a hike and I'm paying less now for just about any type of phone service you can imagine (3 way calling, call waiting, caller ID, et.c) than what I was paying for local only no services (no call waiting, no caller ID, ...)

This ability to write off you local phone company completely will drive the market harder but cable is still going to dominate, at least in the US market.

The rest of the world was not as quick to gravitate to the Cable Modem market. This is do to a number of things. A lot of European and Asian communities had already started using ISDN while it didn't take well in North America. They built a similiar kind of infrastructure for ISDN as what's need for DSL so it was a more natural progression for them to go the DSL route. Not to meantion they're are a lot lower percentage of cable subscribers in Europe and Asia than there are in NA.

Chad

[sbcrair]

Hard to see people wanting to switch unless there's something really compelling that causes it. However, with about 3 - 5% of the population moving yearly, that's an opportunity to try out something new (esp since DSL is cheaper than cable right now...). I anticipate cable dropping their prices from the avg. of $45 to something like $35/mo, and advertising things like better content, etc. to keep people on...

On a separate note, I just moved, and TimeWarner Cable offered six months for $29.95/mo, and then going back to regular price ($45/mo) after that...

[skibare]

Comcast just ADDED 1.1 Million NEW cable High speeders! DSL might make a whopping comeback but CABLE is the leader in USA!!! Interesting how DSL DOMINATES in other parts of the world!!!!