Consumer perception of DSL: cheap, not fast

Despite the recent blitz of marketing from DSL providers and upgrades to higher-speed service, consumers view the telco-provided Internet access as slower but cheaper than cable modems, according a recent survey by Accenture.

The Buying Consumer Broadband survey was launched last October in part to find out why telcos have been unable to narrow the gap significantly with cable operators' lead in the residential broadband market. Using an online panel of 740 high-speed access users--evenly split between DSL and cable modem users--Accenture found that speed and price were the two most critical factors in purchasing decisions.

"It's not surprising, but what is, is that broadband at this early stage is already becoming a commodity," said Stuart Taylor, the Accenture partner in charge of interpreting the research.

Perhaps more surprising, though, was the consumers' perception of both services.

"Cable is definitely seen as the faster technology even by a large proportion of people who have DSL," Taylor said. "DSL is perceived to be the cheaper option."

Telco's initial marketing push to emphasize reliability also hasn't had as much impact as users perceive both services as equally dependable. Among the study's other findings was that most users don't perceive a good portion of value-added content services to be of much value.

"The things that came up time and time again were added security and Spam and popup blocks," Taylor said. "People do not really value [content]. When you ask people what they did prior to broadband, it was more of the same things they did with dial-up but faster."