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 oth ...
from a
telephone company
A telecommunications company is a kind of electronic communications service provider, more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Many t ...
. The pair does not provide
dial tone
A dial tone (dialling tone in the UK) is a telephony 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 or batterie 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
* Battery indicator, a device whic ...
(continuous
electric potential
Electric potential (also called the ''electric field potential'', potential drop, the electrostatic potential) is defined as electric potential energy per unit of electric charge. More precisely, electric potential is the amount of work (physic ...
), as opposed to a wet pair, a line usually without dial tone but with battery.
A dry pair was originally used with security systems 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 dig ...
(DSL) service or an
Ethernet extender to connect two locations, as opposed to a costlier means such as a
Frame Relay
Frame Relay (FR) is a standardized wide area network (WAN) technology that specifies the Physical layer, physical and data link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology.
Frame Relay was originally devel ...
. The pair in many cases goes through the local
telephone exchange
A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a central component of a telecommunications system in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It facilitates the establishment of communication circuits ...
.
''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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, 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, Quebec, in Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in the province ...
) 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 o ...
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 fiber-coaxial (HFC), radio frequency over glass (RFoG) and coaxial cable infrastructure. Cable modems are pri ...
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 (It may also be possible to call
9-1-1
911, sometimes written , is an emergency telephone number for Argentina, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Fiji, Jordan, Mexico, Pakistan, Maldives, Palau, Panama, Iraq, the Philippines, Sint Maarten, the United States, and Uruguay, as well as ...
or the 310-BELL telco business office on a dry loop, however many regions do not support this).
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 ...
*
Local-loop unbundling
Local loop unbundling (LLU or LLUB) is the regulatory process of allowing multiple telecommunications operators to use connections from a telephone exchange to the customer's location. The physical wire connection between the local exchange and th ...
*
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 o ...
*
Permitted attached private lines
References
{{Reflist
Local loop