The voiceband network
1,368,000 households connect over a pair of copper wires and a modem, because their assembly voted against digging up the lane. The federation responded by improving the modem specifications.
Why it persists1,368,000 households
Why the voiceband network persists
1,368,000 households connect by dial-up, across all income levels. The copper is already in the ground. Laying fibre down a lane means a trencher, a road closure and a week of noise, and the assembly that would have to approve it is made up of the people who live on the lane. Proposals for a mast are refused more often, since objections to the structure are common.
The federation therefore improved the equipment. Where the network could not be replaced, the design work went into the modems, raising the throughput a voiceband pair delivers. The specifications are published and any workshop may build to them.
The modemsTS-14 and TS-22
Getting more out of a pair
Throughput above 56 kbit/s
The 56K ceiling was never a property of copper. It came from assuming one end sits on a digital exchange feeding an eight-bit codec, and from leaving the upper voiceband unused.
TS-14 drops that assumption and shapes across the whole band the pair will pass, reaching 64 kbit/s on a clean line. TS-22 adds echo cancellation on the two-wire loop and full-duplex shaping, reaching 96 kbit/s, and it steps down to lower rates as line quality falls.
Bonding existing pairs
Most rural households hold more than one pair, because the copper was laid generously in the fifties. TS-16 runs multi-link PPP across two or three of them and presents one connection.
Three bonded TS-22 lines give a hamlet 288 kbit/s, which is enough for static pages, simple web content and a video call.
Measured throughput2025 line survey
Expected speeds
| Set-up | Specification | Clean line | Poor line |
|---|---|---|---|
| One pair | TS-14 | 64 kbit/s | 31 kbit/s |
| One pair | TS-22 | 96 kbit/s | 42 kbit/s |
| Two pairs bonded | TS-22 with TS-16 | 192 kbit/s | 84 kbit/s |
| Three pairs bonded | TS-22 with TS-16 | 288 kbit/s | 126 kbit/s |
| ISDN, one basic rate | TS-8 | 128 kbit/s | 128 kbit/s |
| ISDN, three basic rates | TS-8 with TS-16 | 384 kbit/s | 384 kbit/s |
ISDN throughput is unaffected by weather. A single basic rate is more efficient than a single dial-up pair, and three bonded dial-up pairs are more efficient than a single basic rate.
The upgrade432,000 households and rising
ISDN
ISDN as the upgrade path
In other countries ISDN preceded broadband and was later withdrawn. In the Republic it is the upgrade available where dial-up is insufficient and excavation has been refused. It runs on the same pair, it is unaffected by rain and line noise, and it comes up in under a second where a modem spends twenty seconds negotiating.
432,000 households use it and the number rises every year. Sixteen exchanges were re-equipped for basic rate service in 2024 alone, all of them in sub-regions with no fibre plan at all.
Keeping the line clearPeer to peer by default
Why calls do not go through a server
Calls between two residents are carried peer to peer over WebRTC wherever the two ends can reach each other, so the audio never climbs to a server and comes back down. On a bonded voiceband connection that reduces traffic.
Conference rooms of two or three people work the same way. Only above that does a mixer get involved, and the mixer at the local exchange is selected first. See calling and conferencing.
Dial-in numbersLindoma to Torvena
Where to dial
Every number below answers at every supported specification and negotiates down. Dialling is free, as all calls are.
- Lindoma and Vandorum2 18 000 001Nine hundred and sixty ports · TS-22 and TS-14 · ISDN basic rate at the same number
- Sederna and the western line2 04 000 001Six hundred ports · TS-22 and TS-14 · ISDN basic rate
- Cortius2 21 000 001Four hundred and eighty ports · TS-22 and TS-14
- Leriduson and the north coast2 07 000 001Three hundred and sixty ports · TS-22 only
- Sornorum and Lutoliluri2 33 000 001Four hundred and eighty ports · TS-22 and TS-14 · ISDN basic rate
- Torvena and the moor2 41 000 001Two hundred and forty ports · TS-22 only · the two mountain groups are fed from here
- Durorilaqui and the plain2 12 000 001Three hundred ports · TS-22 and TS-14 · ISDN basic rate