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Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 09:42:32 -0600
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From: Tony Kimball <alk@Think.COM>
To: lehey.pad@sni.de
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <199603191130.MAA03478@nixpbe.pdb.sni.de> (message from Greg
	Lehey on Tue, 19 Mar 96 12:27:29 MET)
Subject: ADSL
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   Date: Tue, 19 Mar 96 12:27:29 MET
   From: Greg Lehey <lehey.pad@sni.de>
   Cc: hackers@freebsd.org (FreeBSD hackers)
   X-Mailer: xmail 2.4 (based on ELM 2.2 PL16)

   What is ADSL?  This is the first time I've heard of it.  Are the
   speeds you mention without compression?

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line.  See Dan Kegel's page at
http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~dank/isdn/adsl.html

   > ISDN is obsolete.

   Is ADSL available everywhere?  Does every ISP who supports ISDN also
   support ADSL?  Can you use it for telephones and faxes?  If not, you
   can't make that claim.

ADSL is available everywhere, because all it takes is a pair of wires.
If your ISP won't support ADSL, you will be needing a new ISP.
Yes, you can use the same line for POTS and Fax.

There is not a great deal of correlation between technical obsolescence
and market share, and I can say what I like because words mean what
I tell them to mean:)

ISDN was obsolete before it ever got started.  How long will people be
willing to pay for a 115kb link once commodity 2nd-gen ADSL modems
give them a link at 1-8Mb for the same price?  No, a factor of 10-80
in performance, the opportunity for real videoconferencing and VOD
is just too much weight for ISDN to bear.  PairGain modems come out
in June, and the Willtel CAP offering comes out in October.  You may
argue about the relative obsolescence of ISDN today, but come
Christmas time, any further arguments will be silly.