Does Internet Speed Vary by Season?

[tim at pelican.org (Tim Franklin)]

> I read the article and the follow up posts and I wonder if we are all 
> using the same definition for "speed" here.  The article seems to  
> imply you don't get 6 Mbps on your DSL line in summer because the  
> copper is hotter and it's harder to push electrons down the link.   
> That is clearly BS, the clock is ticking six million times per second,
> period.

Are you trying to say that the *actual* DSL speed, as synchronised between the modems at either end, is neither a) affected by the physical characteristics of the copper pair, nor b) variable?

I agree the article is woolly between line-speed, throughput, goodput, congestion, etc, but to say that DSL line speed is in any way fixed in the same way that Ethernet or PDH / SDH lines are is contrary to every DSL platform I've worked with.

(Also, 6Mb/s DSL doesn't equate to 6 million ticks per second in anything relating to pushing electrons onto the wire.  Remember, it's modem technology, just faster - your baud rate is still much lower than your bps.)

Regards,
Tim.