Why was DSL not used in the early days of the internet? Did the technology require faster chips that weren’t available at the time?
In: Technology
Two main reasons:
1. Dial-up is a simpler tech, by far.
2. Dial-up doesn’t require any help from any ~~ISPs~~ phone companies.
Dial-up works by transmitting audio, which means you could just dial the number of any random person with a modem and establish a 1 to 1 connection without any help from a phone company.
DSL can’t work that way, because it uses frequencies that can’t get through the phone system. It needs some very [special hardware](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_subscriber_line_access_multiplexer) at the end of your phone line. DSL is only possible if your phone company specifically installed a bunch of expensive hardware to support it, and only if your line is suitable for it.
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