On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:13:13 -0600, Jim Redelfs
wrote:

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.

Hmmm.. I wish I had known this earlier. I woulldn't have gotten off
the line.

BTW, I quote myself when I don't want my comments to follow someone
else, when I don't want to look like I'm arguing with someone else. I
do enough of that anyhow.

Thanks to all, and especially you for clearing things up, and trader4
especially for his second post which cleared things up.

This is one of those questions I've wondered about for year.s

What follows was interesting too.

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.