Do You Need Phone Service for DSL?

When you subscribe to DSL service, you'll receive a dedicated Internet circuit to your home or business. Your DSL provider transmits digital information using the unused frequencies on standard phone lines. The frequencies most people use in conversation on the phone are limited to a certain range. DSL uses the unused sound frequencies -- frequencies humans do not use when speaking or listening -- to send digital information.

With dry loop DSL, as with standard DSL service, you will need to connect a phone line from a phone jack in your home to a DSL modem. Usually, your DSL provider will provide you with a modem when you pay for your deposit or first month of service. Standard DSL service typically requires that you install filters on every phone in your home, but with dry loop DSL, there's no need to use a filter, and you should not because you do not have home phone service for the DSL signal to interfere with.

You absolutely need phone lines that connect to your home to have DSL, but you do not need home phone service. There must be phone wires that run to your home or apartment, usually ending at a Network Interface Device attached to the outside of your residence. Typically, there are internal wires connected from this NID to at least one telephone jack in your residence. If you do not pay for phone service, you will not hear a dial tone if you plug a telephone to a phone jack. You can still get DSL as long as you have a physical connection to the phone circuit, whether you pay for dial tone service or not.

When you purchase DSL without also paying for home phone service you will receive a dry loop DSL connection. Dry loop can also be referred to as "naked," "dedicated" or "unbundled" DSL. This is simply a DSL connection without phone service. Since the phone lines connect to your home, your DSL provider can send digital information over the phone line connections you already have. If you do not have at least one phone jack in your residence, however, you may need to connect a phone line directly to the NID on the outside of your residence and run it inside to your modem. Check with your DSL provider when your service is installed to see if this is necessary.