A dry loop is an unconditioned
leased pair of
telephone line
A telephone line or telephone circuit (or just line or circuit industrywide) is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system. It is designed to reproduce speech of a quality that is understandable. It is the physical wire or ot ...
from a
telephone company
A telephone company, also known as a telco, telephone service provider, or telecommunications operator, is a kind of communications service provider (CSP), more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunicat ...
. The pair does not provide
dial tone
A dial tone is a telephony Signaling (telecommunication), signal sent by a telephone exchange or private branch exchange (PBX) to a terminating device, such as a telephone, when an off-hook condition is detected. It indicates that the exchange is ...
or
battery
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
(continuous
electric potential
The electric potential (also called the ''electric field potential'', potential drop, the electrostatic potential) is defined as the amount of work energy needed to move a unit of electric charge from a reference point to the specific point in ...
), as opposed to a wet pair, a line usually without dial tone but with battery.
A dry pair was originally used with a security system but more recently may also be used with
digital subscriber line
Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric di ...
(DSL) service or an
Ethernet extender to connect two locations, as opposed to a costlier means such as a
Frame Relay
Frame Relay is a standardized wide area network (WAN) technology that specifies the physical and data link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology. Originally designed for transport across Integrated Se ...
. The pair in many cases goes through the local
telephone exchange
A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It interconnects telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital syst ...
.
''Wet pair'' naming comes from the battery used to sustain the loop, which was made from wet cells.
Many carriers market dry loops to independent DSL providers as a BANA for basic analog loop or in some locales PANA for plain analog loop, OPX (off-premises extension) line, paging circuit, or finally LADS (local area data service).
Local availability
In the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, these circuits typically incur a monthly recurring charge of $3.00 per ¼ mile (approximately), plus an additional handling fee of around ($5–10).
In Canada, a CRTC ruling of 21 July 2003 requires telcos (such as
Bell Canada
Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in t ...
) permit dry loop and some companies do provide this service.
Naked DSL
A naked DSL, also known as standalone or dry loop DSL, is a digital subscriber line (DSL) without a PSTN ( analogue telephony) service — or the associated dial tone. In other words, only a standalone DSL Internet service is provided on ...
is currently provided by third-party DSL (digital subscriber line) vendors in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, but incurs an additional dry loop fee (often $5 or more monthly, depending on the distance from the exchange). There is not yet widespread adoption, as this extra fee often renders dry-loop DSL more costly than comparable
cable modem
A cable modem is a type of network bridge that provides bi-directional data communication via radio frequency channels on a hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC), radio frequency over glass (RFoG) and coaxial cable infrastructure. Cable modems are primaril ...
service in most locations. A Bell Canada "dry loop" DSL connection does supply battery, but the underlying phone line is non-functional except to call
958-ANAC,
9-1-1
, usually written 911, is an emergency telephone number for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Palau, Argentina, Philippines, Jordan, as well as the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), one of eight N11 codes. Like other emergency nu ...
or the 310-BELL telco business office.
See also
*
Current loop
In electrical signalling an analog current loop is used where a device must be monitored or controlled remotely over a pair of conductors. Only one current level can be present at any time.
A major application of current loops is the industry de ...
*
Local-loop unbundling
Local loop unbundling (LLU or LLUB) is the regulatory process of allowing multiple telecommunications operators to use connections from the telephone exchange to the customer's premises. The physical wire connection between the local exchange and ...
*
Naked DSL
A naked DSL, also known as standalone or dry loop DSL, is a digital subscriber line (DSL) without a PSTN ( analogue telephony) service — or the associated dial tone. In other words, only a standalone DSL Internet service is provided on ...
*
Permitted attached private lines
References
{{Reflist
Local loop