Clearing up some misconceptions (Score 1)

Just to clear some things up. The Extel expandsl solution uses SHDSL as the backhaul, not T1, E1 or anything else. The 20kms is possible because there can be up to three separate spans of SHDSL leading out to the Remote DSLAM (possible due to the use of up to two SHDSL regenerators), followed by one span of ADSL from the DSLAM to the customer. All the equipment is powered over the copper pairs. Consult your standard SHDSL and ADSL rate-reach graphs to confirm that three spans of SHDSL plus one span of ADSL can easily reach 20kms. There is no magic, and no special DSL being used here. Defintely no lies or stretching of truth as claimed by one person who says they are in the industry, so should know better. The 20kms starts from where the "exchange unit" is - essentially anywhere there is power and shelter. This point can be an Exchange (Central Office in USA language) or cabinet (Remote Terminal in USA language). Currently, Telstra have chosen to use the solution only from exchanges. Each of the eight customers shares the backhaul, which (mainly for reasons related to Australian regulation of DSL spectrum management) Telstra has chosen to operate at 1.5Mb/s. This is no different to the sharing of backhaul that happens in conventional DSLAM installations. Some telecommunications carriers put up to 50-60 customers on a single 1.5Mb/s T1/E1. Telstra's deployment rules state that no more than 12 customers can share a single 2Mb/s E1. So those of you who think you're getting a dedicated (not shared) internet connection - 99% of you are wrong. The remaining 1% would be getting a business-class DSL service. There's been a lot of work put into technology and standards that allows this "statistical multiplexing" to work. e.g so that customers doing a big download will not unfairly block other customers. Finally, those of you berating the system for not providing sufficient bandwidth, and/or not using fibre ... the bottom line is fibre costs thousands of dollars per km/mile to deploy. Carriers usually can't justify this expense in rural areas where there are not enough customers to recoup the cost from. Extel's expandsl system does the best that is possible using the existing copper infrastructure. At least it provides a DSL to customers where the only other option has been dial-up.