The UK was the world's fastest-growing major DSL market during the first three months of the year, according to stats from PointTopic.

Its Q1 analysis of the broadband market found that the number of DSL lines in the UK grew 20 per cent in the three months to the end of March, while the number of DSL subscribers in China grew 15 per cent.

Overall, the global DSL market grew 10.5 per cent to 107.3 million in Q1 2005 - with more than 37 million lines added over the last year.

Recent research from TelecomPaper showed that there are now 158 million broadband users in the world. The figures - which include cable and DSL connections - found that Asia Pacific was the world's number one broadband region followed by Europe and The Americas. ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/10/uk_dsl/


Dial-ups seem to be going the way of the dinosaur.

They're only the fastest growing this year because the rest of the world has had DSL since 1998 ;-)

how's the cable modem market though? dsl is getting cheaper and cheaper in the us (as low as 15 a month), but customers are getting more informed and know that cable is way better for most people. (farm towns can have as high or higher speeds with dsl)

From friends and family I know with cable, I'd say it sucks because the fastest connection is 1MB.... I'm on 2MB dsl so I'm smiling :)

Now hey!

At least let me have this without any beat downs :yowsa:

From friends and family I know with cable, I'd say it sucks because the fastest connection is 1MB.... I'm on 2MB dsl so I'm smiling :) [/b][/quote]
fair enough, if it's faster than cable there go for it. how much do you pay a month? (obviously for people who work online 10,20, or even 50 dollar difference shouldn't matter, but just curious)

fair enough, if it's faster than cable there go for it. how much do you pay a month? (obviously for people who work online 10,20, or even 50 dollar difference shouldn't matter, but just curious) [/b][/quote]
I'm paying $45 a month, but like you say because I need to be online all the time I think it's a fair price :)

I'm paying $45 a month, but like you say because I need to be online all the time I think it's a fair price :) [/b][/quote]
I assume us dollars is what you mean? (finding that pound sign is a pain unless your keyboards are different, which they very well may be)

DSL is sooo last year ;-)))

Fiber is where its at now - 10 mbits, 20 mbits - even 100 mbits is making DSL looking like dialup modems ;-))

4mb ADSL or 3mb cable cost about the same here, around $35. I'd prefer the cable because of the upload speeds, but where I live at the moment I cant get it.

I assume us dollars is what you mean? (finding that pound sign is a pain unless your keyboards are different, which they very well may be) [/b][/quote]
Yep thats US$ and the £ sign is right next to the $ on my keyboard :)

We had the top of the range connection with BT at our old place but at £239 + VAT every month it was just a waste. There's a big difference from 2MB to 5MB, but I'll take the extra cash in my pocket every month.

It'll be years before fibre is available as it's a huge expense for BT and they've only just upgraded the exchanges to be able to handle dsl :(

Cable sucks here right now, but NTL and the likes are gearing up to take on BT. It'll take some doing as just about every home in the UK is now dsl ready direct from the telephone line... with cable they've got to run a wire into the house so it's a little less than popular...

There's cable laid in the main towns here,
probably about the same coverage as ADSL. The villages are still on dialup.

The beauty of cable here is speed, you can be setup with phone,
internet and tv in a day, an ADSL line takes about a month.

vodafone has started a moblie service here,
about 50 quid a month for broadband web access.
Which means I can finally move up into the mountains and become a mad hermitt. :D

A month!!

That’s mad... I signed up with BT, went and bought my router and I was up and surfing in about 3 hours...


NTL would have taken about 4 days, but seeing that I have SKY on satellite I didn't see the point... plus with BT's friends and family I get my calls to Canada cheap as chips :)

A month!!

That’s mad... I signed up with BT, went and bought my router and I was up and surfing in about 3 hours...


NTL would have taken about 4 days, but seeing that I have SKY on satellite I didn't see the point... plus with BT's friends and family I get my calls to Canada cheap as chips :) [/b][/quote]
Telefonica that owns the lines are the ones that take the time, not the I.P's.

When I got a new line in January, you could hear my 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO' echo around the city when they told me.
I pleaded, I offered $$ and it still took 22 days.

They say it's because of demand, I just think they're lazy bastards.

Telefonica that owns the lines are the ones that take the time, not the I.P's.

When I got a new line in January, you could hear my 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO' echo around the city when they told me.
I pleaded, I offered $$ and it still took 22 days.

They say it's because of demand, I just think they're lazy bastards. [/b][/quote]
Sounds like the Mañana syndrome :D

Telefonica are notoriously slow to set things up, (3 weeks is normal) I had to bribe one of the guys and retain him with a few euros, and he would come out instantly ;) They do take a long time to setup and their networks are riddled with viruses, so you always have to have a firewall in place before connecting. One of the guys I knew just got his connection and a new machine, was in the house with the the telefonica guy plugging it all in, and as soon as he powered it up (without the firewall) to test it on telefonica ..bang viruses ...blaster the lot ..The telefonica guy said the network is riddled and apologised... ;)

The locals call them Timofonica, which translates them to being in league with the devil.

Apparently BT are advertising that 60% of their customers are coming back to them, whereas the reality turns out to be that their customers are going to others in droves, 60% actually.

We've moved from BT and onto every hot shit provider you can get... but as the advert says "They don't provide…"... So I'm with BT until someone else owns their communication lines :)