I'm cleaning out my cellar in preparation for a move, and I just found a DSL modem that used to be in service at a CLEC which is now out of business. The CLEC used this kind of DSL modem to provide both Internet and phone service to its customers.
The unit is a Paradyne "SuperLine", Model 6512-A2-200-0AG. I'd like to know if I can hook it up to my ADSL line and use it to get some other VoIP phone service as well as Internet connectivity.
Paradyne now seems to be (or was bought by) Zhone. The "6512" model prefix seems to have covered a whole bunch of different sub-models... generally, ADSL2+ bridges and routers with extra goodies.
Try looking around the Zhone documentation site: start at
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The information I was able to find about the 6512-A2-200-0AG model specifically (on the Internet in general) was all of the "quick start, plug this into that, and call your service provider for further support" sort of thing. I wasn't able to tell whether this model uses SIP, or a proprietary voice protocol, or whether it's possible to configure it to work with arbitrary SIP VOIP providers.
Possibly the documentation (e.g the "Router User's Guide" at the site above) will tell you that. I haven't looked at it, as Zhone requires registration to make their support documents available.
There are umpteen different implementations of 'DSL', and the CPE has to be compatible with the DSLAM at the C.O. (or equivalent). BOTH in signaling methodology, and 'administratively'.
ONLY your DSL provider will be able to give you an 'authoritative' answer to "will it work, at all".
Someone -may- be able to tell you if/whether the 'phone' port is a standard programmable SIP gateway or whether it was for the former provider to deliver 'dedicated' dial-tone in an at least semi- proprietary manner.
At 10/20/2012 03:20 AM, you wrote: Bill Horne wrote,
Well, since the surplus physical assets of that defunct CLEC ended up sitting in my office before being sold or otherwise disposed of, I can tell you that the Superline modem has no value except as part of a Superline system. But the modems were what ran out before the DSLAMs did. They are out of production, and a handful of rural telcos may still be using them. We sold a couple of the DSLAMs on eBay that way.
For the sake of the audience, SuperLine was a proprietary DSL built by AG Communications Systems around the turn of the century. AG was by then a Lucent subsidiary. Paradyne built the CPE; AG/Lucent built the DSLAMs. The modulation technique was based on Paradyne's MVL, which was basically QAM in a ping-pong mode -- no echo cancellation, but each side got the full line for a period of time. The maximum speed of SuperLine was 704 kbps, but usually less; on the other hand it maintained connectivity at 200-300 kbps out over 20 kilofeet of wire, well past where ADSL crapped out. So it was a good rural system. SuperLine differed from MVL by adding two telephone lines. So your data speed went down when the phone was in use, but otherwise it gave good-quality phone service (prioritized Frame Relay, actually).
It never really caught on, so a handful of carries had it, mostly because they served long loops (we had a lot of those here in Massachusetts and a lot of "donut" rings with no DSL around ADSL-served COs). Paradyne was bought by Zhone who probably has no knowledge of the product.
-- Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com ionary Consulting
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