What is ADSL

There are several key technologies revolutionising the UK telecoms industry. ADSL may be the one you choose to connect with!

What is it? It stands for Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line and turns your existing telephone line into a digital connection.

How fast is it? Promises to connect you to the Internet at speeds that usually need a dedicated fibre-optic connection.

How can I get it? Currently under trials across the UK, ADSL is expected to be rolled out in early 2000.

Where did it come from? The video-on-demand research of the early 1990s had a spin-off for the traditional wired telephone system. The MPEG video compression system chosen for digital video streams images to digital set-top boxes and PCs at two data rates; MPEG 1 at 1.5Mps and MPEG 2 at 6Mpbs.

Spurred on by the prospect of high revenues from pay-per-view video on demand systems, telecoms providers like BT wanted to deliver MPEG video over the copper telephone wires that lead to virtually every phone. The development of the DSL family of technologies for video means that they can now deliver extremely high-speed data of any type to the home.

What do we think of it?
It's very exciting; it promises the kind of access to the Net we've dreamed of.

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