FACT SHEET
Advanced Services Third Report and Order
"Line Sharing"
I. Technical Aspects of Order
- ADSL modems are capable of transmitting at up to 120 times faster than the speed of
56 kilobits per second (kbps) dial-up modems.
- ADSL modems are capable of receiving up to 8 megabits per second (Mbps)
"downstream," and transmitting up to 1 Mbps "upstream."
- The high frequency portion of the loop is the frequency range above the voiceband on
a copper loop facility used to carry analog circuit-switched voiceband transmissions.
- Carriers use a passive filter, or splitter, to split the digital and voice signals and direct
them to the packet-switched network and circuit-switched network, respectively.
II. Pro-Competitive Aspects of Order
- Consumers will not have to buy a 2nd telephone line to have access to a competitive
carrier's high-speed Internet access.
- Consumers will not have to change their phone number to get access to a competitive
carrier's high-speed Internet access service.
- Line sharing will facilitate further investment by competitive data providers and
encourage these providers to deploy advanced services in areas where, heretofore, it
has not been economically viable to do so.
III. Operational Aspects of Order
- Incumbents must provide unbundled access to the high frequency portion of the loop
to any carrier that seeks to deploy any version of xDSL that is presumed to be
acceptable for shared line deployment in accordance with the rules adopted in the
Order.
- Incumbents are not required to unbundle the lower frequency portion of the loop
(voiceband).
- Incumbents must share the line with only one requesting carrier.
- Carriers may not request access to just the high frequency portion of a loop if the
inclument is not presently using that loop to provide analog voice service.
- The requirements set forth in the Order will go into effect 30 days from publication in
the Federal Register. The Order recognizes, however, that it will take additional time
to work out operational issues.