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Is DSL Service Possible in My Area?

Members of the ISP-CLEC list discuss how you should determine if there are enough DSL-quality lines in your area for DSL service. Since the local phone company won't give you the information you need, research is required.

[January 30, 2001]

On the ISP-CLEC list in January, DQ queried,

"I am looking for a resource that will tell me how many DSL-quality lines are available out of each central office. Any advice?"

A number of respondents contended that such a resource can't be found:

[NS advised] "There is no public database with this information."

[RSB agreed] "I don't believe that is public information. The LECs guard that information quite jealously."

[FG added] "The LERG does not have line counts in it, nor does it have any information about loop distance from the CO."

Others offered some crafty solutions:

[DRD noted] "Shouldn't it be possible to buy one of the national phone book CD sets, count the number of phone numbers per exchange (actually per prefix), then map that based on which CO serves which prefixes?

I know it's not that easy to find out which CO serves which prefixes: you may need to do that state by state (maybe from exchange information provided in phone books). It also will only show those lines currently in use, but it's probably better than nothing."

[NS offered] "This is how I did it long ago when I was looking to get into the DSL game. I went out and got a phone database and ran the NPA-NXX numbers against LERG and then put colored dots on a very large (six feet by six feet) map for each CO. With the phone number database, I was able to pull addresses, and I had CO addresses in LERG so I had distances, and then was able to draw on the maps the CO boundary lines."

[JR countered] "According to Marion Cole's 'Introduction to Telecommunications,' it's about 10,000 lines per CO. The NPA-NXX database is useless for accuracy; it's based on street map data.

The real reason why the LECs don't give out this info is because they do not have it. They just throw a bunch of repeaters out there and reach their sixteen-mile limit for analog because that's all they ever had to do."

—End