DSL due for speed boost

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology, in recent years a poor stepchild to cable television Internet access, has rebounded, with improvements that now allow broadband operators to offer access speeds up to and over 2Mbps.

The impact of DSL technologies over telephone lines is likely to continue beyond 2008 and could be a more durable technology than originally thought, rather than a short-lived solution to be replaced by fiber optics, said a new report from Analysys Research in the United Kingdom.

"The most significant features of next-generation DSL technologies are that they extend the reach of broadband services and increase the speed of the technology due to modulation, framing, coding and signal processing improvements,” said Ariel Dajes, lead author of the report.

The analyst said Reach Extended ADSL2 can improve the reach of ADSL to 5km at a maximum rate of 1.3Mpbs, compared to 0.93Mbps for current-generation ADSL. For symmetric services, the newly standardized SHDSL offers reach of 4km at speeds of 2.3Mbps.

Such improvements, the analyst firm said, are complemented by the availability of smaller DSL access multiplexers which make it cheaper and easier to equip exchanges for xDSL.

For more information, visit: www.analysys.com.

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