http://labs.google.com/glossary?q=CO&btnG=Google+Glossary+Search:

Central Office. A telephone company facility within which all local
telephone lines terminate and which contains the equipment required
for switching voice communications across the telephone network. For
DSL service, special equipment is set up at the CO to support DSL
service for customer lines terminating at the CO.
http://www.fanclubsource.com/glossary.cfm

- I have a local phone plan with MCI in New York City, and no DSL is
availaible for me, maybe because I don't have a 'Central Office' nearby
- how do I check if that's the problem? If that's the problem - how
and who do I contact to get a CO nearby? Which other reasons exist for
DSL not being availaible for me? Thanks.

---

Request for Question Clarification by efn-ga on 13 May 2003 22:00 PDT

The broadbandreports.com web site offers a service where you enter
your location and it tells you about what DSL services are available
to you:

http://www.dslreports.com/prequal

(Although the URL says "dslreports.com", the web page itself says
"broadbandreports.com".)

It also has a service that tells you where your Central Office is and
how far away it is:

http://www.dslreports.com/prequal/distance

It would probably be much easier for you to move closer to a Central
Office than to get one built near you.  Central Offices are big pieces
of telephone network infrastructure that are rarely built or
relocated, and they are completely under the control of the telephone
companies anyway.  Besides a copper wire from the CO to your location,
there are other kinds of technology a telephone company can use to
extend the area that can get DSL service, which may or may not be
installed in your location.

It's possible that DSL is not available to you simply because no
company chose to offer it in your location.  I would consider that
unlikely in New York City, but it's possible.  There are also some
kinds of equipment that may be installed in the telephone network that
interfere with DSL service.  I can dig up details if you care.

Does this answer your question?  I can't tell whether your goal is to
get DSL, to understand a denial of service, or to understand the
technology.  But for any of these, there's a lot of information on the
dslreports.com site.  If the information above meets your need, I'll
post it as an answer.

---

Clarification of Question by courious-ga on 14 May 2003 08:34 PDT

Plese post is as a answer. Thanks.

Hi courious-ga,

Thanks for accepting my proposed answer.  The copy below is edited and
expanded a bit.

The broadbandreports.com web site offers a service where you enter
your location and it tells you about what DSL services are available
to you:
 
http://www.dslreports.com/prequal
 
(Although the URL says "dslreports.com", the web page itself says
"broadbandreports.com".)
 
It also has a service that tells you where your Central Office is and
how far away it is:
 
http://www.dslreports.com/prequal/distance 
 
It would probably be much easier for you to move closer to a Central
Office than to get one built near you.  Central Offices are big pieces
of telephone network infrastructure that are rarely built or
relocated, and they are completely under the control of the telephone
companies anyway.  Besides a pair of copper wires from the CO to your
location,
there are other kinds of technology a telephone company can use to
extend the area that can get DSL service, which may or may not be
installed in your location.
 
It's possible that DSL is not available to you simply because no
company chose to offer it in your location.  I would consider that
unlikely in New York City, but it's possible.  There are also some
kinds of equipment that may be installed in the telephone network that
interfere with DSL service.  I can dig up details if you care.

Another web site that might be helpful:

http://www.everythingdsl.com/


Search strategy:

No search for the original answer:  I was already familiar with the
dslreports.com site from my own broadband Internet service shopping,
and I supplemented that with information I already had from other net
sources and my experience in telecommunications.

I found the everythingdsl.com site by searching Google for
dslreports.com, then going to the Google Web Directory DSL page:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Data_Communications/DSL/?il=1


--efn