-=> Quoting Dave Garland to Roland Stiner on PHONE LINES<=-
 
 DG> Dunno.  I believe that sometimes the telco intentionally limits
 DG> bandwidth in order to squeeze more calls into a single channel.  In
 No intentional limitations are used by the Telco's.  Its in their best
 interest to provide you with the best possible service they can. They
 are constrained by the laws of physics however. The old telephone plant
 you are discussing was probably put in when a 75 cps teletype was state
 of the art and the most difficult problem was maintaining the eleven
 milliamp of ringing current required to jangle the bells.
 The Telcos are upgrading their plant to fiber optic as quickly as they
 can.  The federal govt severly restricts their abilities to make the
 required money to build this plant.  When it is finished individuals
 will be able to purchase whatever quality switched services their
 pocketbooks can afford.  An example of the expenses faced is the
 termination box that goes on the end of a fiber connection at your
 house. The price to the Telco's is one thousand dollars apiece.
 If an area is fibered then every customer in that area requires that
 box, even if they are only an old rotary dial phone party line
 customer.
 
 In large cities where the population density requires a telephone
 office every mile, the modem manufacturers claims may be met, it's
 unrealistic however to expect a rural plant where the people are many
 tens of miles away to provide the same service capabilities.
 Suburbanites fall into a catagory some place between those extremes.
 Even though they may be close to the telephone office, the cable that
 contains their pair may run a long way beyond them.  All the cable
 reactances of a long run is on their line also.
 DG> any case, if the signal is lost in the noise when it gets to you,
 DG> amplifying it on your end isn't likely to help much, because you'll
 DG> amplify the noise too.
 Very true..
 Bob..
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