The acronym ADSL stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, and this particular form of internet connection is one of the most widely implemented in the country and abroad, given the convenience of being able to use a telephone line to create the connection. This feature makes ADSL much more available than cable internet or other, less common forms of internet connections (such as satellite or wireless internet). ADSL connections are, in effect, only viable for people living within relative proximity of their phone operator’s central office, generally within 5 to 10 miles’ distance.
The presence of the word “asymmetric” in the name denotes the fact that the traffic being carried on the line (for ADSL customers, simply the copper wire that constitutes their phone line) is heavier in one direction than the other; as a rule, downloads are faster than uploads, in some cases being a slight disparity and in other cases being very noticeable.
ADSL internet connections function by separating the frequency bands used for voice conversations from the bands used to propagate digital data, aka the information you view on your computer monitor. Furthermore, different frequency bands are used for “upstream” traffic (data travelling from your PC to the central office) and “downstream” traffic (data travelling from the central office to your PC). The farther a person is from the central office, the fewer the total range of frequency bands that can be used to propagate the signal, and hence the poorer the performance of the connection.
ADSL download speeds (as mentioned, much faster than upload speeds) can vary tremendously from one subscriber to another, but in general it is common to have upwards of 3 or 4 Mbps rates. Different ADSL standards can help boost that performance, and some of the most lauded standards in this regard would have to be ADSL2+ and ADSL2+M, among the latest contributions to the ADSL industry.
Though ADSL connections cannot provide the speeds available to cable customers—who have the perk of being hooked into a fiber optic cable network—there are nonetheless many more ADSL users out there, since the availability of such connections is much higher than cable. As long as a person has the right hardware to guarantee the proper functioning of their ADSL line (a splitter, microfilter, and adequate modem), ADSL will satisfy the ordinary internet user.
