ADSL

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.