ADSL Information
Alcatel SpeedTouch Home
Notice the Intel i960 IC on the top left of the unit. This is the successor
to the i860 Supercomputer on a Chip. This family of devices are integer
devices designed for speed. In 2001 I had the pleasure to meet with one of
the senior members of the design team for this chip, which was interesting
to say the least.
In a recent letter (July, 2002) from Telstra, they noted that "...installation
of an ADSL connection will require a temporary disruption to the specific
PSTN line; and while Telstra will endeavour to minimise this disruption,
customers should be aware of, and make provision for the effect on services
using the PSTN connection".
In other words, telstra need to disconnect your line from the exchange in
order to connect it to ADSL. We at Radioactive Networks suspect that this is
because a filter similar to the one at the customers location needs to be
installed - and this filter needs to be placed in series with the phone
line. Without a filter at the exchange end, there would be a problem similar
to plugging a phone into an ADSL connection without a filter - that is
high-pitch noises coming from the line.
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