What are the specific benefits of DSL technologies compared with competitive technologies (HFC, fiber-optics, cable)?
The key benefit of DSL is that by transmitting on an existing telephone line, it reuses the existing infrastructure of installed copper cables. This saves the costs (as much as $1000-1500 per home) of installing a new dedicated wide bandwidth fiber optic cable. DSL is therefore very attractive for those with access to existing copper telephone lines. Unlike most alternatives, DSL technology does not require a large upfront expenditure. Individual modem links can be provided as new customers demand service, and therefore costs are incremental. Some competitive methods such as hybrid-fiber coax (HFC, or cable) demand a high-up front expenditure to deploy head-end and cable infrastructure. This is often a high fixed cost regardless of how many customers are initially connected. Such systems are therefore highly sensitive to service penetration (i.e. the percentage of homes that take a service). From the technical standpoint, HFC cable networks have high capacity, although this capacity is
