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DSL-Extender Brings Broadband 20km
An anonymous reader writes "Whirlpool outlines Telstra's new DSL deployment: "Telstra announced a trial of the technology back in January, saying it would allow DSL to be connected to people who were up to 20km from a central exchange. DSL Extenders work by splitting an existing copper phone line into eight separate ADSL lines using a tiny, ruggedised remote DSLAM.""
When they talk about the extender DSLAM hardware being rugged they aren't kidding:
Only the size of a small shoe-box, and being fully submersible to a depth of 5m (16 feet), the R8as can be deployed in more locations than any other DSLAM. It can be installed on a pole, or in a pit or manhole susceptible to flooding, as well as other locations such as un-powered cross-connect cabinets. Its small size and light weight also allows it to be suspended from overhead cable.
I'd like to know if they were serving DSL through a submersed DSLAM during the testing phase. I'd really like to know if works as well as they claim.
...it isn't much beyond an incremental sort of gee-whiz improvement. You can send T1s over long distances and then break them out fractionally or hook them to a DSLAM and use as a backhaul for the customers. The submersion thing might have come about from submersible communications at sea or from the fact that many remote mechanisms in telecom tend to be underground and the waterproofing for those vaults tends not to be the greatest.
I give it a big shrug and a I'll check into it later. I work in telecom so it does get my notice. Now if they make a 1.5Mbps line work to twenty miles on pure copper all the way, that will knock my socks off.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
Please sir, may I have some broadband?
rural new mexico
You don't have to be very rural to wish for broadband. The nearest broadband of any sort is 10 miles away, even though I'm less than a half hour from Dallas.
I started to wonder why this development was happening in Australia instead of here... then I remembered that 1) Australia has even more empty space than we do and 2) US telcos are a bunch of greedy bastards, and the limited rural market won't add enough to the bottom line.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
This has always struck me as stupid.
Copper: great for POTS, crap for data, ubiquitous. So they invent DSL to compensate for copper's inadequacies.
Fiber: crap for POTS, great for data, ubiquitous right up until the end of the street. DSL doesn't work because its a copper technology, so these poor people who are feet away from all the broadband they could ever need can't access it because telcos only know how to do DSL.
I'm not oblivious to the fact that it costs more to split fiber (light doesn't split like electricty), but thats because we don't do it very often as the priority has always been POTS. How long will it be, now that data outweighs POTS, until we get fiber to the front door?
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
As a Verizon customer all during the DSL revolution, neither the house I had nor the apartments I'm in now are dsl'able. Both are within 2 miles of a CO but for some reason they don't offer it. I'd sure like to sign up for more reliable / commercial level (run my own web / email / streaming audio / etc ) than what I have with consumer cable, which costs $70 / month, incl. tv which I rarely watch.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
A friend of mine did do a fiber to the curb sales pilot in Texas for quite a well that could give insane bandwidths. In fact I think Verizon ran a DSL fiber to the curb trial in Arizona where you could get 50+ Mbs up and down.
This is my sig.
If this technology had been available even five years ago, it would have been widely used. Now, I question whether it is going to be an economic solution. Recent advances in wireless technologies seem to promise a cheaper service in remote areas while being able to provide similar bandwidth.
I'm in Wichita Falls TX (125 miles northwest of D/FW), actual out in the boondocks west of Wichita Falls, closer to the booming metropolis of Iowa Park (pronounced "Eye-Way Park" by the locals). We've got broadband wireless out here at 1-2Mbps up/down symmetric by at least three different wireless ISP companies for around $50/month.
Perhaps there is a business opportunity for WISPs, more lucrative than I thought, for wireless internet provider business in the outlying rural-esque areas surrounding the metroplex. Maybe I should think of investing in it.
This has always struck me as stupid.
Just be careful when you use strong language that you can take what you dish out.
How long will it be, now that data outweighs POTS, until we get fiber to the front door?
A few years ago, when I had not yet "made it", I saved a few hundred dollars by wiring my house's telephone lines with phone parts from the local dollar store, using a kitchen knife and a penny. (as a screwdriver)
This wiring works very well today - I have 2 phone lines in my house, and a DSL modem that gives me 1.5 Mb throughput. The DSL modem has been tested to 6 Mb with no difficulty. (Since I went for the cheaper plan, my speed is capped)
Tell me again why fiber is so much better?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
It sounds like Telstras cable plant is pretty shoddy. We have remote DSLAMS near the customers so that we can give them great speeds. Soon, we will be putting a bunch more in so that everyone can get ADSL2+. This crap that Telstra is using sounds like a massive cop-out. It's not going to last very long if you have 2+ (max 8!) users sharing 2.3MBit. You also have to remember, these are people that have been ITCHING to get highspeed because it has been unavailable for so long. When they get it, they will be using it a lot, which means it will suck for those sharing 2.3MBit with 8 people. Telstra should get their act together and start laying fibre. Then they can put REAL DSLAMs near each neighbourhood and do 8MBit with ADSL, or greater speeds with newer technologies. 2.3Mbit won't be highspeed for much longer.
You create your own reality - Leave mine to me.
This 3km limit is a load of cobbliers. The vast majority of lines will work just fine out to 7-8km, and some much further.
1 814
Last year BT did a large in the field trial of "extended reach" ADSL. Basically they hooked any line, no matter what the distance to the DSLAM and let the customer hook up their modem and saw what happened.
In most cases it just worked, and in the cases where it did not work, a visit from an engineer to fit a ADSL filter at the NTE5 (the master socket in the house) and the vast majority started working. In the UK the official estimate from BT is that about 0.2% of all telephone lines will not work with a 512kbps ADSL connection.
The result of the trial is that if you order a 512kbps ADSL line they hook you up regardless. If it does not work you get an engineer visit, and if you are in the unlucky 0.2% you get a refund.
Any ADSL provider enforcing distance limits needs their head examining. The biggest problem by far with long lines not working is the mess of extensions in the house. Solution filter the ADSL signal off at the master socket. What could be simpler.
See the following URL's for more information.
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/news.php?id=201
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=