HIGH SPEED INTERNET FINALLY COMES TO EDINBURGH (2-2004)

I spend a great deal of time on the Internet, both at work 
and at home. But, unlike my high-speed connection at work, 
I’ve had to settle for a modem connection at home. But not 
any longer.

I always figured that our local cable TV company would 
eventually get around to installing broadband Internet 
access along with digital cable TV. But when that never 
happened, I switched over to satellite TV in order to get 
more channels with better picture and sound quality.

I was about ready to give up my hope of ever getting 
broadband Internet at home when I called SBC on a long-shot 
wish that maybe they had installed DSL equipment in 
Edinburgh. To my surprise, they had.

DSL stands for digital subscriber line. But it is somewhat 
of a misnomer, since the line itself is exactly the same as 
your regular telephone line. In fact, you can use your 
existing phone line.

The difference is that the equipment at each end of the 
connection is able to read digital signals, whereas a 
typical telephone conversation (and the signals from a 
regular modem) is analog.

Using filters connected to each telephone in your house 
(which come as supplied equipment), you are able to use 
your single phone line for both high-speed digital 
transmission and regular voice (analog) transmission at the 
same time. That means I was able to disconnect my separate 
phone line that I was using just to connect to the 
Internet.

So for the first time ever, I was able to enjoy the 
benefits of broadband Internet at home. And, if you’ve 
never experienced broadband before, I can tell you the 
difference is amazing.

I occasionally download music. It always took somewhere 
between five and 15 minutes to download a song, depending 
on the size of the file and the speed of the connection. 

But after getting DSL, I went to the Wal-Mart music 
download site and bought half a dozen songs for 88 cents 
each. I downloaded them all in less than 4 minutes.

Then I watched live full-motion video of the activity going 
on in Times Square. Then I went to a music video site and 
watched my choice of music videos in full stereo sound. I 
could do all this while surfing the net, downloading my e-
mail, and talking on the telephone at the same time – 
through the same phone line. I was impressed.

Fortunately for me, the length of the telephone line from 
my house to the phone company’s hub is just over 13,000 
feet. If it had been longer than about 17,000 feet, the 
phone company would not have sold me my DSL connection. 
That’s because the signal fades with distance.

So, not everyone in Edinburgh is eligible for broadband 
yet. My brother, who lives in Meadow Village, can’t get DSL 
because his phone line is over 23,000 feet from the hub. 
Naturally, he’s quite jealous.

But if your phone line is eligible for DSL, and if you’re 
on the Internet a lot, especially to do things like 
download music or watch streaming media, I would highly 
recommend the switch to DSL.