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Old 12-10-2009, 06:44 AM   #3
brk-lnt
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VitaBene View Post
BRK,

Didn't some telecom act or another allow others to use the transmission lines of the existing provider as those lines had been paid by the subscribers? I remeber something along those lines, I will have to do some digging on line.
You're thinking of the copper lines installed by the old Ma Bell and DSL. That was the whole CLEC/ILEC stuff that started in the 90's with DSL and the growth of Internet.

Cable plants are different. They use a common backbone, and the channel frequency allocations are defined by the FCC. So, you can't have 2 MSO's (cable companies) sharing the same cable plant because (briefly) you can't put 2 "Channel 19's" on the same cable backbone.

Telco wiring is all point to point, and on top of that the DSL signal is a separate signal from the voice part. So, you can have AT&T for your voice signal and SpeakEasy for your DSL on the same copper pair leading to your house.
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