Does Internet Speed Vary by Season?

Wed Oct 7 15:28:29 UTC 2009

> No, I did not read the article . . . But,  . . .
> 
> Yes, DSL speed varies by season . . . or rather, temperature.
> 
> But, this is really only the case for _aerial_copper_plant.  Buried 
> plant is nearly the same temperature year round.

Yes, but it is more susceptible to long-term water infiltration, which
leads to longer-term speed drops.  This is actually more difficult to
work with and test for.

> Copper pair resistance changes with temperature.  And, therefore, the 
> link speed of DSL will change depending upon the time of the year 
> (temperature) and geographic location.
> 
> If there is a difference of but a few degrees of temperature year round, 
> then no there will be no difference.  But, if you live in the desert 
> southwest or even the mid-west where the temperatures can be 70-120 
> degrees different between seasons or even 40-70 degrees different 
> between night and day . . . you are going to have pronounced differences 
> in link speed.

You might.  Or you might not.  Around here, it's not unusual to see a
difference of a hundred degrees between summer and winter.  Speaking
from a few decades of experience working with telecom up here, I'd be
tempted to say that either a circuit tends towards being problematic
or towards being reliable, and that where I've been able to ascertain
enough facts, there's a correlation with the age of the outdoor plant-
but that's only a loose correlation.

> Worst cast, your link speed might vary 10-20%.  The longer the cable 
> length from the central office, the more the variance will be.  But, 
> this is something that must be measured on a case by case basis.  And, 
> since much of the aerial plant has been replaced with buried plant, this 
> really isn't much of a problem anymore.

Buried plant mostly has more consistent (maybe less severe) problems, 
IMHO.

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
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