By Keith Reed, Globe Staff
Verizon Communications Inc. is going back to the future in the race to be the cutting-edge provider of broadband.
The telecommunications giant, currently trying to bring high-speed fiber-optic lines into customers' homes, is also testing a super-fast version of its digital subscriber line technology, which delivers Internet services over old-fashioned twisted copper telephone lines.
Verizon is testing DSL with download speeds double their current limits in some of its employees' homes in Texas. If the service proves popular among its workers, Verizon could crank up its high-speed residential connections from their current download speed limit of 3 megabits per second to as much as 7.1 megabits per second.
The DSL upgrade, reported by Cnet last week, comes as Verizon is also rolling out FiOS, its fiber-optic offering that is the backbone for the company's new venture to provide video service, in competition with cable companies.
FiOS offers download speeds 10 times faster than DSL's current quickest speed. It can also deliver cable television and even home phone service over the same line at the same time. The fiber service would eliminate the need for the copper wires that currently carry Verizon's phone and Internet service.
Verizon spokeswoman Sharon Beadle acknowledged that FiOS is a more powerful service, but said a DSL upgrade would give many of its customers the option of quicker connections now, while the company undergoes the laborious process of stringing thousands of miles of fiber-optic lines.