Chances are, you have DSL in your home providing you with Internet access. DSL stands for direct subscriber line, and a lot of different telecommunication companies provide homes with DSL services. There is competition to DSL, however, since AT&T, the biggest landline provider in the United States also offers a U-verse service which, through fiber-optic cables connects digital television with high speed Internet access and telephone services through a central “brain.”
There are a lot of types of DSL, but they all get to your house by being delivered through unused telephone line frequencies that are not being used. DSL is better and faster than dial-up Internet and it is something that has been used for quite some time now. Obviously, it had its effects, but it is getting outdated, however.
Usually DSL sends voice data over lines that already exist in most homes and as such there isn’t a real need to install more cables. DSL is clearly better than dial-up Internet since it is always on and you don’t need to wait for it to connect, plus on top of that, it is around 25 times faster than dial-up Internet. Even though it is clearly superior to dial-up Internet, it is clearly more expensive and it can get slower and slower, depending on your distance towards the office of the provider.
U-verse, on the other hand, works through a Wireless Gateway (the central “brain” we referred to earlier) that connects the Internet access with the telephone services and the digital television. On top of that, it allows you to check your voice mail through your smartphone or your computer. U-verse is powerful and it can provide your whole house with Internet access (wireless) without any dead spots being there at all. Furthermore, this is secure Internet access since it is covered by a firewall that protects your activities against hackers and other forms of hazards that come from the web.
With U-verse you can get your Internet access, your telephone services and your digital television expenses all into one single bill, which makes things a little easier at the end of the month. Your Internet speed can basically be selected according to your needs, since it can range from 3 Mbps to 24 Mbps.
The problem with U-verse, however, is that is not available to you if you do not have fiber-optic cable networks. Nevertheless, it is still superior to DSL in a lot of ways and should almost always be preferred over DSL. Most of the times, you will only be able to have better speed with DSL if you are close to the Internet provider, which is something that will only affect a small part of the population.