He said he'd rather stick with Starpower if it's available, but would certainly avoid At Home. Cable companies note the variety of DSL connections available. But for many users, DSL remains out of reach. The type of DSL service that is competitive with cable modems stops working after the first 15,000 feet of copper wire leading away from a telephone central office. In the District itself, for instance, Verizon has wired every neighborhood telephone central office for DSL service, but 15 percent of the market still can't get a connection.
Some houses are just too far from a central office.
Cheaper, DSL-incompatible fiber used to replace copper cuts off others. Neither problem can be easily or quickly fixed. Over the greater Washington area, Verizon says that about 60 percent of homes can get its consumer DSL service. In more rustic areas, that percentage drops further. Cable systems, obligated by their charters to offer service to every house in a jurisdiction, can have such neighborhoods to themselves.