Question : "cable shares bandwidth, dsl doesn't"...I've NEVER seen this happen though

There's just something I need to clear up, and I have points to waste.

What's up with the old adage about how a broadband cable connection shares bandwidth between end users in a particular area? I've had Road Runner for about a year and half, and pretty much all throughout the day, I get no less than 4.5 mbps out of my maximum provisioned theoretical speed of 5.0mbps down. And just so you know, I'm in a college area where pretty much and kid who has broadband has Road Runner.

Is this just something that proponents of DSL just mindlessly repeat or what?

Answer : "cable shares bandwidth, dsl doesn't"...I've NEVER seen this happen though

all DSL products share bandwidth.  one or multiple t-1's go to the telephone office where your copper pair ends up and aggregate many customers onto this (slightl larger) pipe to the internet.  It called overselling or over subscribing and the ratio of how they do so is what keeps them in business making money at all.  (if it were one to one dedicated they.. even the phone company themsleves would loose money.)