Question for telephone technophobes.
 

About an hour ago, we met some English people who live under 100 metres from our house; in the course of conversation, the word broadband was used.

They said they have broadband, we asked how come; our friends said it was through the normal telephone line. They have wi-fi as well as receiving a download speed between 1 and 2Mbps. Also, the shop and bar opposite our friends house have some sort of BB.

Our question is - is it possible to receive BB through the normal telephone line? Surely not.

Always thought one had to have a different cable. We are pretty sure we can have ISDN, but we believe that is only a fraction faster than our 40Kbps.

We live in a small village, where even our Consultario does not have BB.

Re: Question for telephone technophobes.
 

All comes down the same line, BB uses exactly the same as the old 56k dial up.

Re: Question for telephone technophobes.
 

maybe they just think it comes through the normal phone line - we don't have separate lines for ADSL - it all seems to come through the same line

Re: Question for telephone technophobes.
 

Thank you for the replies. We will get our Spanish friend to speak to Telefonica, when he comes to lunch next week.

Our friends in the village have a contact telephone number, which he is going to try and locate.

To be honest, we would be glad to receive any download speed that is faster than our dial-up, also, it would make life easier for the OH.

All we need now is the rain to stop. Just wish somebody would turn off the tap.

Re: Question for telephone technophobes.
 

It definitely comes down the same piece of wire as a standard telephone line - the magic is at the exchange end - and you have a 'router' box in your home (supplied by Telefonica or your provider)

The only problem can be (but this is less so in 2010) is that if you are in some very remote village the local serving telephone exchange might not have the 'magic' bits to provide broadband or what in Spain is known as ADSL (ie fast internet line/ NON dial up)

Re: Question for telephone technophobes.
 

It's also a question of distance from the exchange.

Normal copper phone lines will only carry the digital signal successfully over relatively short distances. We are about 1.5km from the exchange and are limited to 3mb/sec on an exchange that can support 10mb/s.

If you are much over 2km then, depending on the quality of the line there may well be severe limitations to the service or even no service at all.

Re: Question for telephone technophobes.
 

If you go on telefonica website and put in your phone number in the cobutura box it will tell you what you can get.
Sounds like ADSL 'Rural' through a LAN connection. It's not as fast as proper adsl but it's better than dial up by a mile.