Perhaps I can confuse the issue a little more!
Internet access is like most other things. You get what you pay for! And you are paying for bandwidth. As in, how much and how fast, yes they are different. I’ll attempt to cover that in a second.
A regular dial-up connection is only able to do 56Kb (not KB, that is kilobit, not kilobyte), and that is only in the best-case scenario. Chances are you never really get it.
Next cable connections. They are fast, and depending on your local provider, you may even get them to tell you what your bandwidth is supposed to be. I have cable with Time Warner/Roadrunner, and am guaranteed 384Kb upload, and 1.5Mb download. For the most part, I actually get that. But I check very often, and call when it is going slow. This cost me $45.00/month. That is about going rate, and I run four PC’s on it just fine. However the speed thing can become an issue if your cable provider has poor routing skills!
DSL. Flat out the best, but you are willing to pay! First I should say that SDSL, Synchronies DSL, is the best. This means you have equal upload and download bandwidth. These are very pricey and not worth it if you are shopping in the $20.00-$50.00/month price range (if so, get cable). However, if money is no object, shop away. Also understand any DSL is distance dependant for speed. The closer you are to your local phone comp. Main switch for your area, the faster it will be, and you may be to far to even get it. I am!
Now for that how fast part. Just because your ISP promises you so much bandwidth, there is still the question of how fast you get to your destination, and back to your PC. This is called Ping, and is decided by how well you ISP routes you to the site of your choice, and is measured in milliseconds. You can get little programs to test your ping.(try a quick search for neotrace) Simple fact is that most phone connections have a better ping then cable. That is because the entire phone system was built from the ground up as a two-way communication system. Cable struggles because it was originally designed as a one-way system. Granted ping is really not much of an issue unless you are an on-line gamer, but one should know what they are paying for.
Quick side note: Upload bandwidth is what really cost money!
Here is a good spot for info and such.
www.dslreports.com/