***High-Speed Internet Access From Home: xDSL
by David Lohse

The Digital Subscriber Line (xSDL, where x refers to one of four
varieties of the technology: Asymmetrical, High-Speed, Symmetrical or
Very-High Data Rate) emerged three years ago from the local telephone
companies as a video-on-demand technology. As history well knows, VOD
failed to take off, leaving the telecos with an advanced but unused
access technology - that is, at least until the Internet revolution
created the stampede for bandwidth.

xDSL offers a high-bandwidth downlink channel of 1.5 Mbs to 6.1 Mbs and
a low-bandwidth uplink channel of 16 kbs to 640 kbs (the most common
configuration available today provides 1.5 Mbs downstream and 64 kbs
upstream). The most appealing feature of the xDSL technology is that it
relies on the twisted-pair copper cabling already in place, using
advances in digital signal processing to eliminate echos and other line
noise. Since there are an estimated 600 million copper access lines in
the world today (750 million by the end of the century), xDSL already
has a vast infrastructure in place.

Each xDSL connection requires a line card at the C.O. and a modem on the
customer's end, with a total cost of about $2,000 to $3,000 per line,
although costs are expected to decrease as xDSL popularity grows.
According to Dataquest, the equipment revenue per line, which is $2,000
in 1996, will drop to $400 by the end of the decade, while the total
revenue from xDSL equipment will rise as high as $1.3 billion.

Of course xDSL is emerging at the same time as cable modems, and the two
will go head-to-head in the battle for providing consumer Internet
access. With large cable initiatives, such as TCI's @Home network
(which, btw, just announced a large list of content providers including
leading television, media and entertainment companies) also debuting,
the competition will benefit consumers and finally begin to push the
stagnant networking technology past the kilobit.

A new report by Dataquest has just been released, titled "xDSL: Inviting
the Elephants to Dance," with information on DSL and related
technologies.

Contact: www.dataquest.com

For a list of up-to-date press announcements regarding xDSL, check out:
www.telechoice.com/xdslnewz/news.html


Wave Issue 9607 8/30/96 Article 3-01