Once again, the rest of the world is innovating while the companies here in the United States can’t seem to do anything but litigate.

In Australia, the telecom company Telstra has shown how it can deliver 100Mb speeds over copper wires. That speed domestically has been long sold as only available over fiber-optic cable, which is why companies like Verizon make such a big event of fiber rollout. With the ability of copper lines to have 100Mb speeds in Australia, it becomes worrisome when the copper lines in the U.S. seem to be limited to 3Mb, and that at only a short distance from the DSLAM in the local switching office.

The Telstra system would make use of at least two pairs of wires, which seems like a problem, until the realization comes that most all homes built within the last 30 years have had 2 pairs of wire pulled because of future expansion requirements.

Actually, the new service would not be called DSL, but DSM, as it is different from the technology used today. DSM would use new techniques to reduce crosstalk between pairs of wires, and so allow much higher speeds. DSM has different levels of service, and the highest, or level 3, is the one that allows the 100Mb speeds claimed. This would probably never be used domestically, as it would be just as difficult to rewire with an additional pair as to run one fiber optic bundle.

The possibility of much higher speeds with levels 1 and 2 DSM is certainly possible, and would bring much higher speeds than currently possible over copper wires.

An amazing aside to this is that the research into using DSM started in the United States, with developers Alcatel Lucent and work originating at Princeton University under the auspices of the National Science Foundation Information Technology Research program.

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[tags] Telstra, DSL, DSM, Alcatel Lucent, National Science Foundation [/tags]