Cable & Wireless ADSL Service (or no service)

[Patrick]

Hi All:
Don't know if anyone can help me but I'll give it a shot. I live in the
Republic of Panama, Central America, in a rural area. Cable & Wireless is my
ISP provider (read monopoly) and my dialup internet connection varies from
between 21.6 to 24 kpbs, very rarely 28 and once in a blue moon at 31.2. C&W
has been offering ADSL service in my community at 128 kpbs and above. When I
inquired about obtaining this service I was told that I am on a 'multi-line'
and therefore not eligible (my neighbor on the next block has ADSL), I
requested that I be taken off 'multi-line' to no avail. I then spoke to a
C&W V.P. of Marketing & Sales who tried to sell me a new modem (my computer
is a new Gateway purchased less then a month ago with a Gateway modem
installed) which he said would boost my conection speed to 33 kpbs. I
declined his offer and said that I wanted ADSL service. He said he would
investigate, which he did, and sent me an e-mail back saying that because my
phone line runs through a concentrator it is not possible for me to get the
ADSL service.
My question: is he pulling my leg? If he's telling the truth is there any
way around the 'multi-line' 'concentrator' problem. If so, is it a difficult
process for C&W to do?
Any insight would be appreciated, don't know too much about communications
but I would like to go back to C&W and tell them that it is possible and
this is how's it's done!!!
Thanking all in advance,
Patrick
Boquete, Rep. of Panama

 

[allan grossman [mvp]]

Hi, Patrick -

I haven't seen your phone setup but I think the phone
company would be more than happy to sell you a DSL
conneciton if they could ;-)

Here, most residential phone service is four-wire to the
network interface on the side of the house but it only
takes one pair of wires to make a telephone work. When
you get DSL they run it on the unused pair.

If you've only got two-wire service to the house they
can't do DSL without running another line. I'm not sure
exactly what a *telephone* concentrator is, but if the
phone company says they can't do DSL I'd be inclined to
believe them.

Maybe someone with more telecom experience can give you a
better answer, though.

 

[JR]

When you are on a "concentrator" that means that your
phone line is multiplexed with other phone lines onto the
same copper pair of wires.
Therefore, the bandwith of your line in not suitable for
DSL....
DSl is typically put over the same copper pair as your
normal telephone service. The DSl signal is modulated
onto a carrier above the bandwith of your telephone
service, hence the small splitters you need to separate
the two in your house.

I suggest you contact your telephone operator and ask
them about a dedicated telephone line for you....

Hope this explanation helps a little...
JR

 

[Patrick]

Thanks Allan for the prompt reply. Ordinarily I'd agree with your assessment
about a telephone company being more than happy to sell something but I'm
living in a third world country with a fifth world telephone company that is
just as happy to leave things as they are. My house is only two years old so
my wiring is not ancient. I don't know if ADSL is different then DSL maybe
someone could enlighten me. Anyway, thanks again for getting back to me.
Patrick

 

[Patrick]

Thanks JR, I will take your suggestion and ask them again to take me off the
'multi-line' and give me a dedicated telephone line but I'm not hopeful.
Patrick

 

[Sono]

There're different types of DSL. ADSL (assymmetric digital
subcriber line)- means your dsl's upload and download
speeds are different. The download speed is more than
upload. As you can see DSL is just a generic name.
Patrick, check if you have more than one DSL provider in
your area. Call them if you have, they might give you the
solution.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

ADSL is always shared..... the more folks that have it near your residence,
the slower your line will be. For a higher cost (and new external hardware)
you might want to see is SDSL is available. This is NOT a shared service.

 

[Patrick]

Thanks Sono for responding to my message. I am starting to learn alot about
communications (well not alot but I'm enlightened). Unfortunately C&W is the
only game in town so I'm stuck. Thanks again.
Patrick

 

[Patrick]

Cari, thanks for giving me more insight. Unfortunately C&W only offers ADSL
service (not DSL or SDSL). What I'm in the process of doing is compiling a
list of my C&W billing charges over the last four years and perhaps convince
them, on a cost benefit analyst, of how much $ they will lose if I just stop
using all of their services (telephone, internet). You see my average
phone/internet bill averages about $100. a month in a country that the
payscale is about $1.00 an hour and most people can't afford a phone to
begin with. Maybe, if they have any business sense, they will oblidge me. If
not, bye bye C&W.
Thanks again,
Patrick

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Good luck.... hope they can do something!