If you are like most Americans, you live in a city or region with a choice of two home landline Internet service providers, if that. Over here in my corner of the Ars Orbiting HQ—San Francisco, California—I often wonder whether to switch from my AT&T DSL "up to 3 Mbps" plan to Comcast.

I get the itch to do this during periods when my AT&T connection inexplicably needs to be restarted every day for about a week, then goes back to performing smoothly for no identifiable reason. This has happened twice over the last five years.

Or I get into a switchy mood whenever I see one of those old Comcast TV ads making fun of "Bill and Karolyn Slowsky"—the DSL subscribing turtles who always offer some lame excuse for slow Internet. We're not slowpokes, they invariably insist, we just love the suspense of waiting for downloads. "Fast—it's not for everyone," is Comcast's spin on these hapless reptiles.

The Slowskys were such a hit that now you can visit them any time you like over at their website. Enjoy the languid paced Hawaiian guitar music, or buy a Slowsky coffee mug or t-shirt. But also note the disclaimer at the bottom of the page: "Many factors affect speed. Actual speeds vary and are not guaranteed. Speed comparisons for downloads only and compare Comcast's 6Mbps to 1.5Mbps DSL."

In the end, moving from one ISP to another is a bit of a crap shoot. And a new report out by the Federal Communications Commission indicates that most switchers don't get much improvement for their trouble. The FCC surveyed 3,005 adults between April 19 and May 2 about the quality of their Internet service. Of those respondents, 37 percent switched ISPs over the last three years; 62 percent didn't.

"The findings show minor differences in attitudes between those have switched and those who have not," the FCC report concludes. "The pattern of the differences indicates that those who have switched service are modestly more satisfied than those who have not."

Neither great or significant

Bottom line: 59 percent of switchers told the FCC they were "very" satisfied with the reliability of their new service. But 57 percent of non-switchers also reported the same degree of satisfaction. As for subscribers who were "somewhat" satisfied with their ISP—changers and non-changers disclosed this attitude at the exact same rate: 34 percent.

For one key metric, the stand-patters appear to have won the debate. 48 percent of non-switchers declared themselves very satisfied with their broadband speed, as opposed to 45 percent of switchers.

How about quality of customer service? Exactly half of changers said they're ok with their company's responses to help requests, but so did 48 percent of those ISP customers who stayed behind.

As for price, the survey found that 34 percent of switchers were "very" satisfied with costs, as opposed to 30 percent of stay puts. The "somewhat" satisfied groups remained almost the same sizes, at 43 to 42 percent.

So if you consider a two percentage point gain in reliability, a three percent drop in satisfaction with speed, and a one or four percent jump in happiness over pricing a "modest" improvement, switching makes sense. But overall, it doesn't look like much of a difference to us.

Speed and reliability

Past FCC research suggests that consumers are very confused when it comes to the specifics of their ISP service. That's putting it politely. A report released over the summer indicated that four out of five subscribers haven't the vaguest idea what their broadband speed actually is.

"That is, when asked to specify their home internet connection speed, described as 'the download or downstream speed of your connection per second,' the vast majority of home broadband users in the United States cannot identify it," the Commission disclosed

But you don't have to know kilobits from megabits to know whether your YouTube page is loading up at a reasonable pace. This latest report indicates that a majority of subscribers are satisfied with the basic parameters of their ISP service—it's the monthly price with which a significant number have qualms.

Here are the report's stats on reliability, speed, customer service, and overall satisfaction.

59% are very satisfied with the reliability of their service and 33% are somewhat satisfied.

51% of broadband users are very satisfied with service overall and 42% are somewhat satisfied.

50% of broadband users are very satisfied with the speed of their service and 41% are somewhat satisfied.

49% are very satisfied with their broadband provider’s customer service and 33% are somewhat satisfied.

But as for cost, only 30 percent of broadband users now say they're very satisfied with the price; 44 percent are somewhat satisfied.

And: "23% of broadband users expressed dissatisfaction with what they pay per month, with 15% not too satisfied and 8% not at all satisfied," the survey notes.

But should they change providers? That's the question. How about you Ars Technica readers—do these stats jibe with your ISP switching experiences?