Copper Lines Connect Subscribers Today

A new technology called Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is rapidly changing the way we think about existing telephone lines. Once considered unusable for broadband communications, ordinary twisted pair equipped with ADSL modems can transmit movies, television, dense graphics, and very high speed data. More than 560 million such lines exist around the world today; new cabling, whether fiber alone or combined with coax, will take decades to replace them all. With ADSL, telephone companies can connect almost every home and business to exciting new interactive broadband services now.

For all its capacity, ADSL leaves Plain Old Telephone Service undisturbed. A single ADSL line therefore offers simultaneous channels for personal computers, televisions, and telephones. For example, a family in an ADSL home might be engaged as follows:

Joe, home from college, watches a movie on one TV

Allison, still in high school, does interactive homework on another TV

Mom accesses her corporate Local Area Network (LAN) at high speeds on her PC

And video conferences with her project group on the same PC

Dad surfs the Internet on his PC at warp speeds

A fax arrives from a colleague

ADSL is Essential to the Success of the New Information Infrastructure

ADSL will play a crucial role over the next twenty years as telephone companies enter new markets for delivering information in video and multimedia formats. New broadband cabling will take decades to reach all prospective subscribers. But success of these new services will depend upon reaching as many subscribers as possible during the early years. By bringing movies, television, video catalogs, remote CD-ROMs, corporate LANs, and the Internet into homes and small businesses soon, ADSL will make these markets viable for telephone companies and application suppliers alike.

ADSL Gives Telephone Companies Time to Market Advantage over Competition.

Telephone companies worldwide are facing competition for the first time. Their most formidable weapon is twisted pair copper, already connecting every likely customer to a switching center. ADSL let's them capitalize on this singular asset.

ADSL goes in only when a customer requests service.

ADSL is on-demand technology. It can be offered case by case as customers request broadband connections without expensive neighborhood recabling.

ADSL connects widely dispersed business and residential users

Many multimedia applications appeal to a subset of the population -- doctors, lawyers, teachers, real estate agents, small retailers, software developers, students, Internet users, tele-commuters. For many years many of them will not live conveniently adjacent to new broadband cabling. ADSL is a cost effective way to reach them quickly.

ADSL enables market tests and trials before new cabling.

With ADSL, telephone companies can test markets for new applications (as is happening in market trials today) without incurring expense and risks of installing new cabling.

ADSL services small business and remote branch offices.

Small businesses and remote branch offices require access to high speed data services today and interactive video in the future. New cabling is only planned for residential areas.

ADSL, Already Proved Viable, Moves into Commercial Development.

ADSL technology has been accepted internationally.

American National Standards Institute has approved a standard protocol and set of interfaces for ADSL (ANSI T1.413).

Tests at 30 telephone companies worldwide have demonstrated that the technology works.

Several telephone companies are planning commercial rollout.

Early versions of ADSL chips, equipment, and systems are on the market now.

Lower cost and higher performance versions are under development.

The ADSL Forum, now more than 60 companies strong, works to develop system architectures and protocols required for mass deployment.

ADSL can literally transform the existing information system from one limited to voice, text and low resolution graphics to a powerful, ubiquitous network capable of bringing multimedia to everyone's home or small business -- this century. Why wait?

The ADSL Forum promotes the ADSL concept and facilitates development of ADSL network systems. It is open to all interested parties. It can be reached at 415.378.6680 or ADSLForum@adsl.com.