How does DSL allow customers to access the Internet at speeds up to 50 times faster than conventional analog modems and receive a telephone call at the same time?

A special computer modem, which allows your PC to move data at speeds up to 6.0 Mbps, and your telephone are connected to your telephone line, which consists of a twisted pair of copper wire. A splitter attached to the line separates the data and voice traffic as they leave your home.

The digital data and analog voice then travel over telephone lines to a nearby Southwestern Bell switching office. There, the information is interpreted by special equipment and routed over Southwestern Bell's robust fiber-optic network to Southwestern Bell Internet Services (see diagram below). 

Because DSL operates on your regular phone line, a power failure will not impede your ability to use your phone to make a call.

Utilizing the telephone line guarantees a point-to-point connection for DSL service, making it more secure than cable modem connections. And it's always available. Southwestern Bell DSL is compatible with regular voice service such as voice mail and custom calling features. For customers with a Local Area Network, the Alcatel DSL modem works like a bridge. The modem alone has the capacity to remember 15 MAC addresses allowing a LAN of up to 15 workstations to connect to the Alcatel modem without a router. If there are more than 15 workstations on the LAN a router will be required. Any router that has dual ethernet ports will work as long as one of the ethernet ports will support a WAN connection and one of the ethernet ports will support the LAN connection. If the customer does not have such a router, contact SBNI. The network diagram for this configuration would look as follows: