What Is ADSL?

To put it simply, imagine you are talking to a friend on the phone at the same time as your mother is talking to her friend on the same telephone line. There would obviously be confusion as you would not be able to work out what your friend is saying because of your mother's conversation. However, let's say that you and your friend have a very deep voice, and your mother and her friend have a very high pitched voice. This starts to make it easier for you as you can now concentrate on the low voices to hear the conversation. And now let's go one step further and add a box to your phone that cuts out any high pitched voices and only allows low sounds through. Now you can talk to your friend without hearing your mother's conversation at all, even though they are talking on the same telephone line.

This is how ADSL works. You will receive an ADSL modem which connects your computer to your phone line, and you will receive a filter, which you connect to your telephone, which cuts out the 'sound' of the ADSL modem and allows you to use the telephone line at the same time. You will need one filter for each telephone that you have connected to the same telephone line, and you are provided with one as standard, so if you have more than one telephone connected to the same telephone line you will have to purchase an extra filter for each one. You can find details on prices at How Much Does ADSL Cost?

Because you can now use your telephone at the same time as your computer, there is no need for a second telephone line. If you have a second line (or a teen line) which you only use for connecting to the Internet, you can apply for the ADSL on your main telephone line and disconnect your second line, saving you the rental expense.

ADSL technology in Gibraltar works at 512Kbps and 256Kbps download. Upload speed is either 128Kbps or 256Kbps hence this is why it is "Asymmetric", because the download speed is different to the upload speed.