t wasn't long ago that cable modems were the only way to receive affordable, high-speed Internet access in your home; today we have a little competition. Below, you can see how Road Runner stacks up and get knowledgeable answers to your questions about all forms of Internet access available in the Charlotte area today.

Road Runner

While our competition is strong, Road Runner provides the fastest speed, the best customer support, and the best value of any high-speed Internet service. While our competitors try hard to misrepresent Road Runner, the reality is that our high-capacity cable system can give all of the homes in our service area consistently fast Internet access with the same level of security as any other form of Internet access. It's for all these reasons that, just twelve months after our launch, over 5% of the homes in our Charlotte system had switched to Road Runner.

Satellite

Delivered via satellite dish, services such as DirectPC are much slower than Road Runner, limit the amount of time you can spend online each month, and are often more expensive. Because transmission via home satellite dish is one-way, dial-up modems must still be used for sending data to the Internet. As a result, the overall speed is reduced further and your home phone line is blocked while you are using the service. Other limitations, such as providing only a single email address, make the service less suitable for families. Despite these drawbacks, services like DirectPC are available for homes that cannot receive either cable modem or DSL service.

Dial-Up

Under the best circumstances, dial-up connections to the Internet are slow, take a long time to connect, and tie up your phone line while you are using them. In the worst case, busy signals are common, connections are flaky, and speed is inconsistent. Price represents the only advantage of these services, yet most people who are considering a second phone line for Internet use will find they can actually save money by choosing Road Runner.

ADSL

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a new high-speed Internet service that uses existing phone lines and is offered by local phone companies and other providers. While slower than cable modems in most cases, ADSL typically costs more per month than Road Runner for comparable service. Installation of ADSL can cost hundreds of dollars more than Road Runner and some ADSL providers require subscribers to sign long-term contracts. ADSL is delivered over unshielded copper wire that results in distance limitations and interference problems, limiting the availability and the speed of the service. All of these factors have contributed to the relatively slow acceptance of this service.

Wireless

While wireless Internet access using technologies like CDPD is available in the Charlotte area today, it is not high-speed and--even with a one-year contract--is still more expensive than Road Runner. With speeds ranging between 9.6 kbps and 19.2 kbps, these services are about as fast as the dial-up modems widely in use five years ago. While some wireless providers provide compression software designed to double or triple the download speed of certain types of files, even these modest claims are suspect.

ISDN

Phone companies have been offering Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) service for a decade, but acceptance has been very slow due to high costs and modest speed enhancements over modern dial-up modems. Where ISDN has found acceptance is in businesses requiring dedicated, highly secure connections for wide area networks (WAN). Increasingly, however, businesses are using a virtual private network (VPN) in conjunction with cable modem and DSL connections for better service at a fraction of the cost.