What's the Difference: Business and Home DSL?What is DSL? Home DSL (or Digital Subscriber Line) typically uses one pair of wires. It's the same pair of wires that go to your current phone. A pair of wires, like those that go to the speakers in your stereo can carry a broad range of frequencies. Humans typically hear frequencies in the 30 Hz to 20,000 Hz range. But, wires can carry a much broader range of frequencies. Your telephone is designed to use frequencies in the range of 0-4 kHz. These are the frequencies of most normal human conversation. But, this limited range of frequencies wastes a lot of capability of your phone wires. Your local phone company can make a lot of extra money by utilizing the ability of those wires to carry higher frequencies. DSL Frequencies In DSL, these higher frequencies are used to carry modulated data, similar to the modulated data in a typical dial-up Internet connection.
Voice conversations and modem data take up only the first 4 kHz of bandwidth. To help ensure the fidelity of your phone conversation there is a gap between 4 kHz and 20 kHz. Beginning with 20kHz, the frequencies are divided into 4.3125 kHz bands. Frequencies in the middle of these bands are modulated to carry data. Frequencies in the range of 20 kHz to 130 kHz are used for upstream communications (from your computer to the Internet). Frequencies in the range for 140 kHz to 1,000 kHz are used for downstream communications (from the Internet to your computer). Since there is a greater range of frequencies carrying downstream data, you can download faster than you can upload data. This is characteristic of an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL). Various types of DSL are available. Some of the different type use some or all of the above frequency bands to transmit or receive data. High capacity DSL uses two pairs of wires. Home DSL For example, SBC Yahoo offers two DSL packages: an Express Package and a Pro Package. The Express Package allows downloads up to 1.5 MB per second and uploads up to 128 kB per second. The Pro Package uses more DSL frequencies and allows downloads up to 3.0 MB per second and uploads up to 385 kB per seconds. Home users typically use high data rates for downloading audio or video from the Internet. They seldom have large files to upload and so do not need high upload data rates. Business DSL Business DSL typically uses higher upload rates than consumers. Often the upload rate equals the download rate. Symmetric (or Single) Digital Subscriber Lines (SDSL) can be provisioned at 1.544 MB for both upstream and downstream rates. Business owners typically use DSL for high speed transaction processing, video conferencing, or a combination of telephone lines and data communications. Voice over DSL (VoDSL) allows up to 16 telephone lines and continuous data service to be handled by a single DSL connection. See What's Available in Your Area Whether you are interested in business DSL or home DSL, we have the gathered the providers together and can allow you compare their offerings. To get the right vendors for you we need to know your location. Back to Cheap Internet Service Providers |
