What is ADSL?

[VelMurugan]

What is ADSL?

ADSL is the acronym for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. ADSL is a loose set of protocols that allows for high speed internet access over normal copper telephone lines or what is more commonly known as POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). This is possible because the signals are sent digitally instead of through analog waves. ADSL is known as asymmetric because the download and upload speeds are not symmetrical with download speeds being averagely faster than upload speeds. Upstream data speeds are lower because requests for web pages normally do not require a lot of bandwidth.

ADSL provides internet access that is constantly on unlike dial up phone access. That way, your computer remains connected to the internet when it is powered on unless the cable is manually disconnected. ADSL allows for the simultaneous use of normal telephone services (voice), Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) and high speed data transmission such as video. ADSL provides much higher bandwidth than traditional dial up connections. Speeds can range from 512Kbps to 9 Mbps.