A discussion about the Telecommunication Industry

Over the past few years, DSL has been supplanted by cable as the predominant internet access technology in the home.  DSL has lost even more market share to new fiber optic services and even to wireless.  AT&T is trying to stem that decline by adding some free services with its DSL service.  In the small business market, DSL still enjoys a sizable market share advantage over cable, but that is mostly due the lack availability of cable in commercial spaces.  A new DSL company is looking to buck that trend with an exiting technology, bonding.

Bonding is the ability to tie multiple internet lines into one faster pipe.   DSL startup Sharedband is set to roll out its service in Seattle this week.  Sharedband will be selling its services through ISPs rather then direct to the consumer.  If your ISP is Sharedband service provider, you can get multiple DSL lines and using special Sharedband routers you can combine the speed of the multiple DSL lines into one faster connection.  Another added benefit to bonding is redundancy of your connection.  You can even bond DSL lines from different ISPs, as long as both are Sharedband service providers.

If this idea proves successful and Sharedband goes nationwide, it will breathe new life into DSL and may even help DSL break into the larger business market where T1s are more common.