Question: I currently want to sign up for Bellsouth DSL, but do not want to maintain a local phone line. Can I get the DSL and not have to have the phone line? Do they have that capability yet? Thanks!

Answer:

That's partly a technical question, but mostly a legal one.

The term for what you are asking about is Naked DSL - DSL over the copper pair to your house without having to be a customer of the phone company.

Of course, BellSouth -owns- the copper pair that runs from the phone company central office to your house/office. If you get DSL, BellSouth will make money - it is only a matter of whether BellSouth is who you pay, or whether you pay a third party (usually Covad or someone selling you Covad's services) who rents the phone circuit from BellSouth.

The phone companies have been enforcing a rule that says Covad (or any other third party) can't share a copper pair unless that line is being used for local voice service from the incumbent phone company (BellSouth).

This is a legal and regulatory battle BellSouth is fighting - it isn't a technical constraint. It is very similar to the arguments AT&T made before they were broken up that if people were allowed to connect non-AT&T phones or modems to the AT&T network that the infrastructure of the nation would collapse. That clearly has not happened. Quite the contrary.

A third party could, in theory, rent a copper pair for DSL that is not on a shared basis with an existing voice line - however, instead of paying a few dollars a month to share a line, the phone company will hit them with charges comparable to what it costs to have a local service phone line, perhaps even a little bit more.

Recent events with the FCC would suggest the FCC is somewhat walking away from the 1996 deregulation act and saying that the phone companies now have effective competition (with things like Voice over IP) and that they no longer should be compelled to share their facilities with competitors.

On the other side, many people have disconnected second phone lines because they now have cell phones and no longer need a phone line for their computer (because they use cable internet access) - this has resulted in a huge glut of unused copper pairs now at the phone company. Eventually, one would hope that they'll see the wisdom of getting some revenue from the unused copper, since this trend is not going to reverse itself.

Voice of IP over cable systems is just going to accelerate the process - that's why the phone companies are now building out fiber networks to your home so they can start selling you video services to try to put the cable TV companies out of business.

Qwest is the one former Bell company bucking the trend, but they also happen to also be the most aggressive at competing against the other former Bells in long distance and internet services: Back in February 2004, they started offering naked DSL.

Related news stories:

BellSouth naked DSL
Verizon naked DSL
Business Week article

Since this is primarily a regulatory issue, if you want to speed up change, the place to apply pressure is with your state's Public Utility Commission and your state representatives - and to some degree with the FCC.