DSL is broadband delivered over the copper telephone wiring that was already in the ground. It is the oldest thing still sold as broadband, and for millions of homes it is still the only wired option.
<section>
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<h2>The short answer</h2>
<p>
DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. It sends data over the same
copper pair that used to carry a landline telephone call, using
frequencies the voice call did not use. That is its whole trick, and it
is why it was able to reach almost everyone almost immediately: the wire
was already there.
</p>
<p>
It is also why it is slow. Copper was never designed for this, and
performance falls off with distance from the telephone exchange. Two
houses on the same DSL service can get very different speeds purely
because one is farther down the line.
</p>
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<h2>How it compares</h2>
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th></th><th>DSL</th><th>Cable</th><th>Fiber</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>Medium</td><td>Copper phone line</td><td>Coaxial</td><td>Glass</td></tr>
<tr><td>Typical download</td><td>Tens of Mbps</td><td>Hundreds</td><td>Hundreds to 1 Gbps+</td></tr>
<tr><td>Upload</td><td>Very limited</td><td>Small fraction of download</td><td>Often equal to download</td></tr>
<tr><td>Affected by distance</td><td><strong>Yes, heavily</strong></td><td>No</td><td>No</td></tr>
<tr><td>Affected by neighbors</td><td>No</td><td>Yes, shared node</td><td>Largely no</td></tr>
<tr><td>Direction of travel</td><td>Being retired</td><td>Being upgraded</td><td>Being built</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</section>
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<h2>Why it is disappearing</h2>
<p>
The companies that own the copper are not investing in it. Where they are
spending, they are spending on fiber, and in many markets they are
actively retiring copper rather than maintaining it. If you are on DSL
today, the realistic question is not whether it will improve. It is
whether anything else has reached your street yet.
</p>
<p>
That question has a real answer, and it is address-specific. Providers
report to the FCC which locations they can serve, on which technology.
</p>
<p class="hero-cta">
<a class="btn" href="/check-my-address/">Check what else reaches your address →</a>
</p>
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<h2>If DSL is genuinely your only wired option</h2>
<p>
It is for a meaningful number of US homes, and the honest advice is not
to pretend otherwise. Two things worth knowing:
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Fixed wireless has become a real alternative.</strong> A
cellular signal to a receiver at the property now beats DSL in a lot
of places, installs in a day, and does not care how far you are from
the exchange. See <a href="/fixed-wireless/">fixed wireless
providers</a>.</li>
<li><strong>Satellite reaches where nothing else does.</strong> Latency is
higher for reasons of physics, but it is a genuine option of last
resort. See <a href="/satellite/">satellite providers</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>
More on what separates the wired technologies:
<a href="/guides/fiber-vs-cable/">fiber vs cable</a>.
</p>
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