I have always heard that it's the way that Pilot is explaining it- but I won't pretend to have first hand knowledge of the technical details in this area.

In all honestly, since both companies are constantly begging for new business, why not try both? I have a feeling that it's like a lot of things in life, "it depends". Road Runner broadband works great for me, so I'll go with it. It's flaky for Tim where he lives, so he'll give SBC DSL a try. I think both of these technologies still have more regional/geographic issues than they admit (for obvious reasons). Probably the only way to really be sure what will work best in your neighborhood is to try both, stick with whichever works best until it's starts being flaky or they want to raise your rates, then try the competitor again. It's the benefit of living in a Capitalistic free-market society so we might as well take advantage of it .