Broadband, high-speed and DSL are just different names to describe a form of Internet access that is much faster than the regular dial-up access. Why would you want high-speed service rather than a dial-up connection?

No waiting for the computer to dial up a connection to the Internet. No long waits for e-mails to open up. No long waits for websites to download.

Watch streaming video, movies, game online or take online classes.

There are SOME limitations for SOME customers:

A user within the city limits of Madelia will be able to get a top speed that is higher than a user that is at the farthest limit of our DSL serving area, 4-5 miles out in the country. And those customers who are further out than that may not be able to get our high-speed access at all at this time.

The connection is faster for receiving data than it is for sending data over the Internet. This is by design, since most users spend most of their time on the Internet in activities that involve RECEIVING data (surfing the Internet, receiving e-mails, photos, etc.). On the other hand, those customers who send large amounts of information over the Internet—usually for business purposes—will notice that the time it takes to send it is a little longer than the time it would take them to receive the same amount of information.