I am aware of the somewhat dicey claims of cable, which is why I never switched over before. Their publications have a lot of caveats along the lines of "many factors affect speed."

I know that the demand on the shared system is a major factor, and I can't help but think that the vastly increased throughput on cable TV (on-demand HD shows!) has got to be using up some of that capacity.

They made a big deal out of burying a shitload of optical cable all over town a few years ago, but I don't see anybody beating my door down to bring it into my house. If the cable system converted over to all-optical, of course, all bets on speed would be off.

I'm a little leery about going to a shared phone line (I have a dedicated one now), but a dedicated line w/static IP would cost me over twice as much a month with NO speed increase. Besides, I can use my fax line, which sees little normal use.

New modem and splitters will be $89 (self-install), but with an $89 mail-in rebate, so that doesn't suck.