dial up internet

[foshizzle]

I'm just asking this out of curiosity, and couldn't really find anything on google.

Aren't dial up connections limited to 53kbit/sec because of some government organization(I think the FCC) wanted it that way. IIRC, I had read somewhere, more than a few years ago, that the reason that it was limited was because of security concerns(I don't know what those security concerns were). Well, now that the internet is so big now, why can't they up the 53kbit limit? Or am I completely wrong, and there's another reason it's limited to 53kbit?

 

[JackMDS]

I think that 53Kb/sec. is the limit of the Copper to transmit reliable Analog.

The actual exchange is compressed 115Kb/sec.

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: foshizzle
I'm just asking this out of curiosity, and couldn't really find anything on google.

Aren't dial up connections limited to 53kbit/sec because of some government organization(I think the FCC) wanted it that way. IIRC, I had read somewhere, more than a few years ago, that the reason that it was limited was because of security concerns(I don't know what those security concerns were). Well, now that the internet is so big now, why can't they up the 53kbit limit? Or am I completely wrong, and there's another reason it's limited to 53kbit?

Dial-up is limited by the phone line that carries it. When you consider how old and small phone lines are, I am actually impressed they can transmit as fast as they do!

 

[foshizzle]

I just read up on it a little more. And the FCC is the reason that the speed is limited, because they think that higher speeds would cause too much crosstalk/interference. I wonder if they could have been able to fix all these things if dial up technology had been allowed to develop past that 56k barrier, or is that what they did with dial up?

 

[martind1]

it is the fcc. your 56k modems can not run at above the 53k barrier due to restrictions. some phonelines are unable to reach even that due to the quality of the lines.

there are plenty of alternatives, DSL, and cable.