The end of ADSL

Nothing stays the same. If there is one field where this is particularly true it is in Information Technology (IT), and perhaps in its most significant aspect, the Web.

If having a fast ADSL Internet connection was a matter of pride so far, the technology is showing its age and is on its way out. Several other forms of subscription and channels to the Web are now available and are gradually replacing ADSL.

Fibre optics, DSL, microwave, 3G, 4G, leased lines, T3, etc.. are some of the wired and wireless options, other than the wired ADSL, and they offer significantly better, more reliable and of course faster connection.

There are inherent limitations to copper-wired ADSL. Although you can subscribe to faster or slower formulas, the peak speed will not exceed 24Mb (megabyt per second) in the best case. Moreover the upload speed is but a fraction of the download speed. Typically if you enjoy 24Mb download, the upload will be around 1 or 2 Mb. Five or ten years ago it was not a constraint, for users would browse (i.e. download) much more than they would send data (i.e. upload).

Today with the huge size of audiovisual material we exchange, with extensive and ever increasing usage of the cloud — which implies equal and large amounts of downloads and uploads — ADSL is just not enough.

Last but not least, your ISP (Internet Service Provider) will put several subscribers on the same ADSL connection and will make them share it, resulting in unstable, inconsistent speeds and performance, depending on whose doing what on that shared line.

Consider just the size of the pictures you take with your smartphone. Thanks to the much improved resolution of the new handsets’ cameras, it has been multiplied by four in the last six or seven years. So when you send or receive a photo taken with an up to date, high-end smartphone, this alone requires a connection certainly better than regular copper-wired ADSL.

Some networks, like for instance WhatsApp, automatically downsize the picture you are sending so as not to overload the network, and also to put less stress their own servers. This results in pictures with reduced quality. If all networks were consistently fast there would be no need for such downsizing. WhatsApp statistics indicate that an average 1.6 billion photos are exchanged on its network every day (figures of February 2016). Doesn’t this call for better than ADSL?

If you use a cloud storage service such as OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox, here too ADSL is hardly a good solution.

Most of the new subscription formulas and technical implementations offered by the ISPs, including by those operating in Jordan, fare better than ADSL. In plain the latter has become somewhat old.

Times have changed and the need for faster and more consistent Internet has become a real need, certainly not a luxury, and it is justified at home as much as it is at work.

As always performance comes at a price. Whereas ADSL has become relatively inexpensive, with household subscriptions being at about JD250 per year, 4G for example is still charged much higher by the local ISPs. One of the leading providers in Jordan charges JD10 for each 4GB you would use via your 4G-enabled smartphone.

As for the leased lines that large enterprises and businesses often subscribe to, although prices have gone down recently, they are still in the range of a few thousands dinars per year. If it is often feasible for business it is rarely so for home use.

One way or another, and regardless of cost, ADSL is bound to disappear very soon.