In article ,
mm wrote:

Did dial-up ever cause a shortage of phone lines?

Lines? Yes, in some places.

Switching capacity? No. Subscribers "camped-on" for hours and days and we
never broke a sweat.

A lot of people have gone to cable now, but there was a period were
20, 40, 80? million people had dial-up and they stayed on for hours
and hours, maybe all day.

Never a problem. By the time dial-up internet was at its peak, virtually all
switching systems were digital. Most interoffice connectivity was (and is)
via fiber optic cable.

Cnversely, is there now a lot of excess capacity on phone-only lines,
now that many people have switched to cable?

Not a lot. The biggest factor idling ILEC (Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier)
pairs was loss of customers to CATV getting into the dialtone business. It
was (and is) a *HUGE* loss.

Doesn't even switching to DSL end up using new central
station hardware

Yes.

leaving old phone-only hardware unused?

No. The existing "phone-only" equipment is still used. Additional equipment
is ADDED to the loop to enable DSL service.
--

JR

Mean Evil Bell System
Historical Society