What is the origin of ADSL and fiber optics

If there’s one technology we all use every day, that’s the ADSL and the fiber optics. In a couple of decades the popularization of the Internet has made it indispensable in any home, transforming the way we relate to each other, our leisure, consumption habits or even the way we seek employment.

Fundamental tools in modern technology

However, few know what the actual origin of ADSL and fiber optics is. In this post we will try to unravel one of the great mysteries of our time.

The ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) was born in 1989, 26 years ago, of course, in the United States. It was a version of DSL technologies whose first version was born two years earlier developed by Bellcore.

This technology was born with cable TELEVISION enhancement and the creation of interactive television applications such as the current Smart-tv. The ADSL shared time with SDSL (Symmetric DSL), R-ADSL (Rate Adaptative DSL), VDSL (Very-High-Bit-Rate DSL) and HDSL (Hight Bit-Rate DSL) but it was he who managed to stay in time.

The main difference with the other versions was that the speed was asymmetrical, being much faster in downloading data than in the upload, which made it the perfect way to offer the internet.

Optical fiber, on the other hand, has uncertain origins as it is based on technologies that began to be studied in the late nineteenth century but whose principles already knew Greeks and Romans.

In the 1970s the current process would be updated and its first application to transmit information would be carried by AT&T in 1980 with the installation of interoceanic cables that transmitted information at high speed. However, the high fragility of the fibers meant that it was not until this century when it began to be used as a substitute for ADSL as it prevented the loss of speed that occurs in the ADSL the further it goes from the telephony center.

Although to this day both forms are used quite a lot and compete on an equal footing, the same is not expected in the future. In fact, Telefónica hopes to take down the ADSL in Spain in 5 years and replace it with the FTTH, which incorporates fiber optic technology.

To achieve this, progress must be made in the installation of fiber optic systems in rural environments since the penetration of the ADSL is much higher than that of fiber. The Spanish company hopes for the next few years that all municipalities of more than 1,000 inhabitants can have fiber optic connection and thus discard the ADSL, something that is quite complicated if we take into account the current penetration.

Go into www.comparaiso.es and see if you have coverage to hire some of the new ADSL and fiber optic offerings. Fiber cable installation continues to grow every day, seeking to completely replace the technology created 26 years ago by Bellcore.