DSL factoids

[Walter Dunz]

The condition of the line is only a small factor in providing DSL service. 

First and foremost, you must be within approximately 18,000 feet of the
switch.  This is linear wire length, not geography, as the quality of the
signal falls off the further you get from the tranmitter.  You could be
located 200 yards from the CO, but if they have to run cable 2 miles up and 2
miles back to cross the river that is in between, you will be limited to 56k
for a while longer. 

Only about 45% of the current phone customers actually are eligible for DSL at
this time.  (SWB and the press will tell you this number is a lit higher, but
they have been guilty of telling tall tales before!)

Next, if you are using a provider other than SWB, then SWB must have enough
room in the central office location to allow your provider to co-locate the
proper equipment.  This is a judgement call for SWB and guess what - they
often feel there is not enough room in the Central Office facility.  (This is
the problem Birch is having here in KC, but recent court rulings have helped
to move things along a little bit.)

For many of us over the 18k limit, there is NOTHING we can do now, but relief
may be on the way.  New DSL repeater technology has been released that will
bump the limit up several thousand feet, but this only covers an addition 10
to 15% of us and will take about a year to roll out to the general public.

SWB can not force you to choose them as your ISP.  You can choose whom ever
you like, provided that ISP has the equipment in the Central Office to pick up
your data and route it to and from the ISP's location.  This is usually done
over T1's or T3's so you don't have to worry about the technology behind that
segment.

Dave Parker <dlparker at dlpinc.com> wrote:
> I don't think that the lack of a T3 to the central office should be
> a factor.  I have no idea what's at the central office here, but my 
> line goes from my house to the central office to the ISP.  It's a 
> dedicated connection.  As I understand it, it is just a straight 
> through connection that is not processed by ANY of the local phone 
> company's equipment, so what they have or don't have at the switch 
> or central office (don't ask me to explain the difference - I thought 
> it was confusing when I thought I KNEW what the difference was) is 
> not a factor.  It's just a wire pair going straight from your 
> location to your ISP, using the phone company's switch or central 
> office as sort of a patch board to connect the wire path.  You can 
> have a similar circuit installed for an alarm system, and if the 
> alarm company wanted to start offering you DSL over that wire pair, 
> they could probably do it with the right equipment.  It's more a 
> factor of the condition of the line and not a factor of bandwith at 
> the phone company's switch or central office.  Your ISP is where 
> the bandwidth needs to be.
> 
> Because SWBell has said that they will not be offering DSL at your
> location because they won't be running a T3 to that office implies
> that they are talking about DSL service where they offer you not only
> the wire but also the internet access.  You just need a wire to get
> from your place to your ISP.  The phone company has those.  They're
> not all in good enough condition to carry high speed traffic, but
> all the locals have been laying tons of new cable in the local loop.
> The availability of lines may vary from area to area, but if they can
> put in a new phone line for you, then they can also install a line
> that can potentially be used for DSL.  If they can install an ISDN
> line, then I'll bet they can also install a wire pair that's clean
> enough to carry SDSL.  My line only carries 272K each way (it's SDSL),
> but my ISP can flip a switch on the DSL equipment at his end and bump
> it to 512K each way.  They're just not offering that data rate yet.
> 
> 

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