[SOLVED] Do cable companies use the same lines?

[david37362]

I've been having issues with my ISP and I'm wondering if switching will help but if they use the same lines then it probably won't solve my problem. I'm paying for a 20 mbps upload speed but I'm only getting around 5 mbps. I've had them come over multiple times to check things and they've never been able to come up with a solution.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

More often than not, the advertised speeds of lets 100mb down/20mb up speed, actually only mean that you can 'get up to that speed'. So your not guaranteed the full 20mb up speeds.

You may be sharing the connection (contention ratio), this also effects those same speeds. Most ISP's operate on a 1:8 contention ratio. Meaning that at peak times, up to 8 other connections will be sharing the up speeds.

This is not the case if it's a 1:1 contention. You might ask your ISP about that.

 

[bill001g]

Depends what you mean. Unless the ISP is going to put in new wires or run a new fiber to your house the last segment of wire is going to be the same. In some areas they have forced the company that owns the wire to lease it to other companies. This is mostly for telephone type wire for DSL connections. Coax tv type of wire seem to only be used by the company that owns it but I suspect that varies from community to community. I know in the USA the cable companies pay the city so they have exclusive rights.

So going from one DSL provider to another likely will make little difference. The company that owns the wire will still be providing the service to your house just hidden under a different contract. Now if you mean if you switch from say DSL to coax cable or fiber. That likely will be different since it is different wire. What is strange is ATT has fiber and telephone in some areas and 2 different groups support this, kinda like 2 different ISP even though it is the same company.

 

[SamirD]

I've had this same problem before. The lines they use once they connect to your house can be the same, but the lines outside and from their service will not be. We have 2 different cable providers at my parents house and each one actually has a separate physical line coming into the building.