DSL: Challenges and Innovations

The DSL rollout has been plagued by delays, but one industry insider argues that this problem is natural to all new technologies. Someday, DSL will be as common and trouble-free as the telephone.

by Vicki Foshee [March 20, 2001]
Vicki Foshee is Senior Vice President of Service Delivery for Telocity, a leading national residential provider of broadband services. Ms. Foshee has also worked for two other DSL providers: NorthPoint Communications, Inc. and Pacific Bell.

There have been a lot of horror stories lately about nightmarish digital subscriber line (DSL) installation experiences. Such stories share the common theme that the installation process is a lengthy one, and in some cases, DSL service is not yet available. For those seeking a high-speed Internet connection in the home, this process can be frustrating, and at times may make the dial-up modem seem downright speedy.

It's hard to imagine that just 30 years ago, traditional telephone service was still seen as more of a convenience than a necessity. When the infrastructure to support this technology was being developed, no one could have imagined the changes that were yet to come.

Party in the sixties
During the late 1960s, local phone service was provided through the use of "party lines." The term "party line" meant that a pair of copper wires or a "line" supported an entire neighborhood. Because many households shared this line, each person had to listen to make sure no one else was on the line before making a call.

People accepted the requirement of sharing lines because consumer demand did not exist to justify the expense of providing individuals or households their own copper lines.

This changed fast. Over a period of several years, a major communications transition took place—the telephone became a necessity and the traditional method of wiring neighborhoods through party lines was no longer adequate to support the demand.

To respond consumer demand, telephone companies installed dedicated phone lines. While the new technology was a significant improvement for consumers, the transition from party lines to dedicated telephone lines in each household was painful and time consuming for both the telephone company and consumer. A similar pain is now part of the evolution of DSL technology.

History does, in fact, have a propensity to repeat itself: several factors have created a demand for DSL unforeseen by the same local telephone companies that failed to predict the boom in dedicated dial-tone service some 30 years ago. These factors include the growth in Internet usage, the affordability of personal computers, corporate acceptance of telecommuting and the desire to quickly navigate the Internet from home.

While the installation of DSL technology can be compared to the installation of phone lines, there are some significant differences. Every household or business is a unique installation, with distinctive line conditions, lengths and properties that require individual solutions and a human touch to resolve. While many parts of the DSL installation process are becoming standardized, many have yet to become routine. As a result, installation times are still unpredictable and sometimes lengthy.

DSL has issues
While DSL "rides" the same copper pairs as voice or analog service, the simplicity ends there. The following are the most common physical issues confronting any DSL installation:

1. Distance—The distance from a residence to its local telephone company's central office must be within a specific geographic proximity—typically not greater than 18,000 feet.
2. DSLAM Equipment—The local telephone company's central office needs to be properly equipped to enable DSL. It must be equipped with a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM). And DSLAM ports must be available.
3. Line Conditioning—Local loops (the copper pair that runs between a house and the local central office) must be in good condition. If they need to be "cleaned" or conditioned, delays in installation will occur or in the worst-case scenario, the order may have to be canceled.

While there are solutions to these impediments, they are unfortunately not that simple.

Because neither bridge taps nor load coils impacted voice service, local telephone companies did not record which residential lines have conditions that might adversely impact DSL installation. Additionally, most remote testing done on residential lines occurs late in the DSL provisioning process.

More often than not, the need for line conditioning isn't detected until the very end of the provisioning process, when a technician at the consumer's residence first detects the need. If this isn't bad enough, once the need for line conditioning is discovered, most local phone companies either charge large fees for line conditioning or refuse to do it altogether. Often, this position results in order cancellation, sometimes after consumers have waited months to receive service.

A sampling of regional bell operating companies (RBOC or baby bells) indicates that while some RBOCs refuse to condition lines, others charge as much as $900 for basic line conditioning plus any extra costs incurred above $900. If a line going into a home must be conditioned, the cost of the process is too cost prohibitive for most American families.

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