And the two services you most likely are going to have available in your area are DSL and cable. Another option you might explore is Internet access through your local cable provider. Like DSL, cable access is expanding rapidly. In fact, both DSL and cable providers are spending enormous amounts of money developing their networks so they can grab as large a customer base as possible. Estimates of the potential bandwidth range upwards of 30Mbps from the cable service provider to the subscriber.
Cable networks are inherently different in design from telephone networks.
Cable networks are broadcast-oriented, with each subscriber in an area receiving the same signals as all others in that area. It was not designed, however, to send information back. This requires either a second cable plant for upstream or a second frequency band allocated onto the existing system. All of this means that cable modems offer a dedicated service over a shared network. The dedicated service is beneficial, but because it is a shared network, there could potentially be security problems.