Digital Fiber = 56k Trouble

Digital Fiber = 56k Trouble?

The telephone network is a combination of analog and digital signaling: the traditional telephone is an analog device, and the dial-tone line takes an analog signal. At some point, this signal is converted to a digital signal - most often in the line card at the phone company's central office serving your line. The conversion is done by a 'codec'.

The method described above requires that every phone line to every subscriber be on a separate pair of wires - not the most efficient means of carrying the signal to high-density or growing areas. The extension of the digital signal can be done with a variety of technologies including fiber. While bringing the analog-to-digital conversion closer to your premises should provide even better 56k rates, too often, it produces the opposite result. This can be due to the electronics, software and digital to analog conversion associated with the digital extension.

For example, Glenn Battis is Valdosta, Georgia wrote:

I only have dialup where I'm at because we are on fiber between our apartment complex and the switch. Bellsouth has seen fit to overlook us in any upgrades. Anyway, I have fought for over a year, just to maintain a 28-33K connection with any sort of reliability. I owe much of that connectivity to information from your site. Okay, enough background. I started getting carrier drops again and had service come out. It seems that there in an interface board between the in building copper and the fiber that has currently three revision levels. Mine was still a Rev. A board, part of the original building installation about 4 years ago. The Tech replaced it with a Rev C board which he says has better frequency response and overall gain. I am now getting stable 48-52K V.90 connects. So anyone who has fiber and slow connects, I reccomend pushing the phone company to upgrade that local interface card. It certainly can't hurt.