Phone companies attempting to stoke new life into slow DSL speeds

Ericsson Promises 500Mbps DSL [Broadband Reports]

DSL has become the new dial-up, with slow speeds that are being outpaced by cable broadband. Customers are choosing cable broadband at a rate of 2-1 over DSL, and the phone companies are working overtime to come up with a hook to keep DSL customers from switching to cable broadband. So, now they're promising a new generation of DSL that will deliver broadband speeds up to 500 Mbps. Broadband Reports has posted on a new iteration of DSL from Ericsson, claiming download speeds of 500 Mbps using standard copper telephone wiring. Think there's a catch? Yes, you'd be right about that.

The new DSL "technology" that Ericsson is promoting might just work if your closest neighbor is the phone company and you're willing to commit to rewiring your home.

One of the limiting factors of DSL speeds is the distance a customer's home is located from the phone company. The further a DSL connection is away from the network hub, the slower the connection speed will be due to line noise. For Ericsson's tests, the 500 Mbps speed was achieved at less than 500 meters - less than two football fields away from the network hub. That's a lot closer than most customer homes are located relative to the phone company's network hub.

The second issue with Ericsson's claims deal with the fact that this DSL technology uses six copper pairs in the wiring to achieve the speed they claim. Most homes telephone wiring consists of a single pair of copper wires, not the six pairs required for this DSL technology. Even if a phone company ever offered this new DSL technology in a product, you'd be forced to rewire your home to get it.

As Broadband Reports puts it:

It seems like at least twice a year, an engineer or company finds an innovative new way of milking some additional bandwidth out of copper -- though you'll note that none of these technologies ever see mass-market implementation.

Guess it's pretty tough jamming a bowling ball into a straw.  The bottom line on 500 Mbps DSL: it's simply a case of over-promise and under-deliver from the phone companies who are looking for ways to save their lagging DSL business in the wake of customers switching to faster broadband offerings from cable providers.

Comments

[Lovis]

I originally pucasrhed a Linksys DSL/Cable router because of a clerk's recommendation. It never worked even after I took it back and got a replacement. I then pucasrhed a Netgear ProSafe router which sort of worked with the BellSouth DSL modem but still had all sorts of packet losses. I went back to the store and pucasrhed the Belkin Cable/DSL router and it worked flawlessly right out of the box! I ran the set-up cd-rom, attached the cables, and I was on-line in 3 minutes. I then hooked in my wife's computer and laptop and they too worked after booting. If you have BellSouth DSL or any other finicky ISP, this router is the one to get, it saved the day!!

[Pranay]

the land-line costs $X and each added service costs $Y, $Z, etc. ? What is hindig in those Double Play and Triple Play price bundles ?P.S. Cloud computing is the latest fad phrase in info. tech. But to me it's just another name for what a service bureau offers. I worked for one (Decimus) in the 1980 s and had access to a couple of others (GEISCO and CompuServe) at times. But for these services to really work we're going to need fat pipes at a reasonable price. Take a look at the communities of Lafayette (LA), Wilson (NC), and Bristol (VA). When the Copper Clowns dragged their feet they went and did the work for themselves. Maybe the solution is to get the Copper Clowns out of the fiber business (along the lines of You snooze, you lose. ).

[HughesNet Broadband Internet]

Wait a second, I got lost. If DSL internet is a broadband internet, why is satellite inernet called broadband too? I don't probably fully understand the word "broadband" in this case.

[sineswiper]

I think it's the difference between shielded and unshielded lines. Cable is shielded, and they have fiber lines that go to the head ends, anyway.

DSL/Phone is unshielded, with those DSLAMs that amplify the signal every few miles. You amplify a signal so many times, it's going to degrade and increase noise quite a bit.

[Mark]

My only question about DSL is, what causes all of the line noise? Is it a lack of insulation / shielding in the wire, or is it the grade of copper that they are using?

Personally, I would not consider going from my cable modem to DSL, but I'm just curious to know what causes the line to degrade so badly?