More than 800 million such lines exist around the world today; new cabling, whether fiber alone or combined with coax, will take decades to replace them all. With DSL, telephone companies can connect almost every home and business to exciting new interactive broadband services now.

A single DSL line offers simultaneous channels for personal computers and televisions while leaving ordinary telephones undisturbed. For example, a family in an DSL home might be engaged as follows:

Joe, home from college, watches a movie on one TV
Allison, still in high school, does interactive homework on another TV
Mom accesses her corporate Local Area Network (LAN) at high speeds on her PC
And video conferences with her project group on the same PC
Dad surfs the Internet on his PC at warp speeds
A fax arrives from a colleague

DSL is Essential to the Success of the New Information Infrastructure

DSL will play a crucial role over the next twenty years as telephone companies enter new markets connecting subscribers to the Internet and delivering information in video and multimedia formats. New broadband cabling will take decades to reach all prospective subscribers but success of these new services is dependent upon reaching as many subscribers as possible during the early years. Bringing the Internet, corporate LANs and movies into homes and small businesses soon, DSL will make these markets viable for telephone companies and application suppliers alike.

DSL Gives Telephone Companies Time to Market Advantage over Competition.

Telephone companies worldwide are facing competition for the first time. Their most formidable weapon is twisted pair copper, already connecting every prospective customer to a switching center. DSL lets them capitalize on this existing asset.

DSL goes in only when a customer requests service.
DSL is on-demand technology. It can be offered case by case as customers request broadband connections without expensive neighborhood recabling.

DSL connects widely dispersed business and residential users
Corporate LANs, Intranets and the Internet are vital fabrics in todayís business environment connecting businesses such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, real estate agents, small retailers, software developers, students, and telecommuters. Leveraging the existing twisted pair infrastructure with DSL provides a broadband network with the speed that todayís applications demand.

DSL services small business and remote branch offices.
Small businesses and remote branch offices require access to high speed data services today and interactive video in the future. New cabling is only planned for residential areas.

DSL, Already Proven Viable, Moves into Commercial Development.
DSL technology has been accepted internationally and standards bodies throughout the world have adopted it: American National Standards Institute, which approved the initial standard, is in the final phases of approving an updated version. With market trials complete telephone companies have started the full scale deployment of the technology.

Early in 1998 a new consortium, the Universal DSL Working Group (UAWG), was formed to accelerate the definition of a lower speed technology G.Lite which is a compatible subset of the full DSL standards. Product rollout for G.Lite modems is targetted at the end of 1998.

The DSL Forum, with nearly 300 member companies, has taken the lead in developing the architectures, protocols, test methodologies and migration paths for DSL. DSL can literally transform the existing information system from one limited to voice, text and low resolution graphics to a powerful, ubiquitous network capable of bringing multimedia to everyone's home or small business -- this century. Why wait?

Up