Is DSL available for me?

DSL is FAST internet service, with speeds that can reach over 50 times faster then your analog 56k modem. Your connection is always up, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, saving you the time and effort of dialing up every time you wish to check your e-mail or browse the web. The speeds lets you listen to radio, TV, movie, concerts and many other media choices over the internet.

What are the speeds and technical details?

Many people already know that a typical modem runs at a theoretical maximum of 56k bits per second. K is a measurement we use in the computer world to mean Kilo, or a thousand... If you have a 56k modem, it can run at 56,000 bits per second max. You see that little Pac Bell network logo in the table at the top? That is about 18,000 bits long, or 2.2K bytes. Every graphic adds more to the time it takes to see a page.

With a DSL connection, your speeds start on the low end of 128,000 bits per second, or 128 Kbits per second. In the $40 price range, you can expect to find connections that send data to you at a theoretical maximum of 1,500,000 bits per second or 1.5Megabits.

Most DSL connections employ an ASYMMETRICAL, or "one way is faster then the other" method. For example, with residential Pac Bell service, you will see download speeds starting at a minimum of 384K bits per second and topping out at 1.5Megabits. Why this difference in speed? It has to do with distance. The closer you are to the phone company office, the faster they can send data to you. Upload speeds, or the speed at which you can send data to the internet, max out at 128 Kbits per second. By keeping the end users outward data push low, we can drive down the cost so that home users can get faster internet service at a great savings.