Naked DSL
June 2nd 2008 05:46
While I was visiting a friend in hospital yesterday, she mentioned something I hadn’t heard of: Naked DSL. The way she explained it, it seemed to be something similar to the mobile connect unit we used with our laptop in England, but I think I may have picked up what she said wrongly.
That would have meant you could pick up DSL from anywhere, but that’s not the case. (It’s different to taking your laptop to a wireless hotspot.) You’re still connected to a landline, but in a different way.
As far as I can make out, naked DSL, which is also known as standalone or dryloop DSL, is a way of getting broadband without actually having an ordinary phone line running. In other words, you don’t have to pay for the telephone side of things because you’re using an alternative for your phone calls, such as Skype or one of its equivalents.
In normal broadband the wire from your telephone system is split between the phone line and the broadband. Unless I’m being kidded, the splitter that does this is called a Plain Old Telephone Service, or POTS splitter. (!)
However, with naked DSL, the dial tone is removed from the line. This means you can’t make phone calls, but you can get broadband.
There are now a number of alternative ways of making a ‘phone’ call. You can get a dial tone through a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) instead of the usual telephone provider (someone like Telecom), or you can use a mobile service or Voice Over Internet Provider exclusively such as Skype. I only use Skype as an example because it’s one I’m familiar with. A number of New Zealand ISPs are now providing the telephone part of the line as well as the broadband.
At the moment in New Zealand naked DSL service is being provided by Orcon, Slingshot, Snap, Supra, and WorldxChange. There may be some others. It’s also possible to get the POTS and DSL from different service providers.
Telecom New Zealand is the usual provider of most phone lines, but for some reason it’s hedging on the naked DSL. It was supposed to begin providing it sometime in 2008, but as far as I know it’s not yet available. Once again it seems, the ‘little’ providers are a step ahead of the lumbering giant.
For more information – more technical info that is – check out this Wikipedia article on the topic.
That would have meant you could pick up DSL from anywhere, but that’s not the case. (It’s different to taking your laptop to a wireless hotspot.) You’re still connected to a landline, but in a different way.
As far as I can make out, naked DSL, which is also known as standalone or dryloop DSL, is a way of getting broadband without actually having an ordinary phone line running. In other words, you don’t have to pay for the telephone side of things because you’re using an alternative for your phone calls, such as Skype or one of its equivalents.
In normal broadband the wire from your telephone system is split between the phone line and the broadband. Unless I’m being kidded, the splitter that does this is called a Plain Old Telephone Service, or POTS splitter. (!)
However, with naked DSL, the dial tone is removed from the line. This means you can’t make phone calls, but you can get broadband.
There are now a number of alternative ways of making a ‘phone’ call. You can get a dial tone through a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) instead of the usual telephone provider (someone like Telecom), or you can use a mobile service or Voice Over Internet Provider exclusively such as Skype. I only use Skype as an example because it’s one I’m familiar with. A number of New Zealand ISPs are now providing the telephone part of the line as well as the broadband.
At the moment in New Zealand naked DSL service is being provided by Orcon, Slingshot, Snap, Supra, and WorldxChange. There may be some others. It’s also possible to get the POTS and DSL from different service providers.
Telecom New Zealand is the usual provider of most phone lines, but for some reason it’s hedging on the naked DSL. It was supposed to begin providing it sometime in 2008, but as far as I know it’s not yet available. Once again it seems, the ‘little’ providers are a step ahead of the lumbering giant.
For more information – more technical info that is – check out this Wikipedia article on the topic.
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