ALTERNATIVES TO THE MODEM-BASED LOCAL LOOP ACCESS

The conventional modem access to the Internet is the most popular way of getting a connection to a service provider. It is also one of the most inefficient ways as well. The high-speed modems (discussed in Chapter 6) cannot operate at speeds greater than 56 kbit/s. While this bit rate may seem adequate, it is not of sufficient capacity for large data transfers.

Several alternatives to modem access are emerging in several countries. The ISDN alternative has been around for a few years, but it does not solve the bandwidth problem, because most commercial implementations are set for 64 kbit/s or (for a steep price) 128 kbit/s. The next section explains ISDN, but the emphasis in discussing alternatives in this chapter is on the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) technologies.