I can tell you precisely.

I had the DSL for two years and had to listen to the BS from Verizon for the entire period. "They were just as fast as cable and they were cheaper."

Well, the facts are as follows:

DSL depends on the distance from the central station. The practical limit is about 15,000 feet. The closer you are to the limit, the slower the speed. Mine would run 768K on downloads using the speed test. This was when everything was running perfectly. Some days it fell to 350K. The system would frequently go down, once or twice per week, and calling them would result in the same BS every time:

We don't show any outages in your area so it must be your computer.

Troubleshooting my computer never solved anything. They sent me to buy line filters, sent a new modem. Nothing ever solved the problem until time passed. Then, magically, 10 minutes to six hours later, the system returned on its own.

It was one of the most frustrating two years that I ever experienced. I now know why people go postal.

However, there are folks that have DSL on fiber optic cable and it's fast as hell............faster than the cable. This is the way to go, if you can get it.

If you can't, then find out exactly how far you are from the central station. If you are more than 10,000 feet, the tell Verizon to stick it and stay with the cable. You'll never get a reliable connection at 1500K at that distance, no matter what they tell you.

The cable has gone out twice, for about 10 minutes each time, in the last six months. Very fast and very reliable. The lack of stress is worth the additional cost.