[suprz's ghost]

I was wondering, what is it that determines the speed of your DSL? Is it the modem that you get, or is it an internal provider equipment restriction?

[ghporter]

There are a lot of factors, most of them involving the wire between your provider and your modem. With high quality wires, you can get much higher signal speeds, but with older wire the electrical path suffers from high frequency losses and your potential speed degrades. Beyond the physical limitations, your provider can and will cap your connection based on what you contract for and the condition of your lines. For example, I'm paying for "up to 3Mbps download" speeds, even though my actual wires could probably handle as much as 6 or 7Mbps, so my provider caps me (from their end) at what I'm paying for.

[Don Pickett]

Around here it's the cap Verizon puts on the lines. Originally, Verizon capped all residential DSL at 1 Mbit (256 up/768 down) and, since Verizon owns 95% of the infrastructure, that was it. In the past two years Verizon and Covad, the other main provider, have been offering higher speeds. Both now offer 3 Mbit.