DSL has only been available at all from the Stalham RCU since September 2004. The little Hickling remote a few miles away (serves about 800 lines) only got it about a year later, so it's still relatively new out here.
Ed, you've seen the pictures of the two multipairs which run out to Eccles on Sea. We actually had one of them replaced a few weeks ago. I had to wait for the bucket-truck to move on the way out, so I chatted with one of guys. I jokingly asked if we were actually getting more pairs out here, but he laughed and just told me they were replacing one of the cables from the DP in Lessingham (next village on the way to Stalham, about a mile away). I guess they finally got so many bad pairs in there that with demand as it is they
had to replace one. That and one of the main distro poles on the estate just doesn't have room for any more DACS (Digital Access Carrier System) units!
On which point, a lot of people here who are still waiting for DSL don't understand about our equivalent of SLCs.
"But I've had a phone line for 5 years. I already have the line, surely?"
Some grasp the principle when I tell them that you need your own dedicated pair for DSL, but I'm sure others don't follow it. I think they're still thinking about a "shared" line as being along the lines of an old party line, and think that they can't be sharing a pair of wires because they never hear anyone else.
By the way, what's dial up? Just kidding!
I still have a Hayes SmartModem 2400 in the cupboard. I guess in a few more years it will be a museum piece!
