Talk of the Point

DSL reaches farther into the Point

News to me: A Pacbell/SBC technician tells me that a year or two ago his company installed fiber-optics into the Point to enable DSL–the high-speed Internet connection, Internet cable’s main competitor–to reach more customers. If you tried to get it once and couldn’t, you might want to try again. I’ve had it since 1999 and I love it.

DSL emerged in the last few years as an easy and cheap way to get a fast Internet signal down “the last mile” to homes and businesses. It’s cheap because there’s no need to install new copper wires. DSL puts an Internet signal on the very same copper wire as a telephone signal.

The trouble is that the Internet signal’s technical characteristics makes it lose its juice faster than the voice signal. It’s a hare, not a tortoise. It can travel only about 18,000 feet—not as the crow flies but as the wire goes. Wires often follow circuitous routes on their way to the customer. The fiber optic cable helps by pushing the starting point farther out, letting the phone company set up outposts that are closer to customers.

All this benefits you, dear reader, because with DSL you can get Talk of the Point so much faster!

(Originally posted 1/7/03)

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