Meantime, local phone companies are starting to sell high-speed Internet access through digital subscriber lines.

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That is faster than many digital subscriber lines' Internet service today, yet glacial next to the fiber-optic service now available to many consumers.

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That means Brand X was able to buy access to those networks at wholesale prices and resell high-speed digital subscriber lines (known as DSL) to their customers.

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Whether it's phone wire used for dial-up and digital subscriber lines (DSL), or the coaxial cables that carry cable modem connections, these connections are a bottleneck between the carrier's big pipes and your bandwidth-starved computer.

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With bulked-up networks, they have poached millions of phone companies' subscribers with cheap voice-over-Internet Protocol plans and sell faster Internet lines than the telcos' digital subscriber line services.

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This development has prompted the former incumbents to accelerate the introduction of DSL (digital subscriber line) technologies to provide high-speed Internet access over the phone lines, Sarkar added.

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Alcatel holds a dominant position in the digital subscriber line (DSL) market, which provides high-speed Internet access over conventional phone lines.

FORBES: Laggard