Open WAN Connectivity Project: MegaPath / DSL.net

DSL.net which is now part of MegaPath deserves a special mention on these pages because it appears that they are the last semi-major SDSL provider who operates Copper Mountain DSLAMs. We haven't been able to find out the exact extent of the old DSL.net service footprint, but it appears to be very small unfortunately, covering the major metropolitan areas on the East Coast between Boston, MA and Washington, DC and not much else.

When providing SDSL service in geographical areas not covered by their CM-based DSL.net footprint, MegaPath goes through Covad like most ISPs. (Update: Covad and MegaPath have now merged, but we don't really understand yet how it impacts the legacy DSL.net component.)

Harhan Engineering Co. has got a channel partner arrangement with MegaPath, and we are now able to assist end users with procuring some of the more unusual services like SDSL with V.35 hand-off or bonded SDSL up to 12 Mbps symmetric. See this page for more information.

MegaPath has also made some contributions to our project which we gratefully acknowledge:

DSLPipe DSU photo, top view DSLPipe DSU photo, front view

We have a special note for any extant MegaPath/DSL.net customers from the old days who are served by a CPE device like the one pictured above. This device is an SDSL to V.35 bit-transparent DSU much like our own OSDCU.

The DSLPipe version pictured above was made/marketed to be used with Lucent TNT DSLAMs which are very old, even older than the Copper Mountain armored vehicles which we praise DSL.net for still using. We have heard that MegaPath would like to discontinue the Lucent platform and migrate all Lucent-based customers to Copper Mountain, or perhaps to their Covad component now that they've merged. What the MegaPath folks may not fully realize is that the DSU pictured above (and described extensively on this page) can be converted from the Lucent flavor to the CM flavor with one change of an internal jumper, which would make it absolutely trivial to support V.35 users on a Copper Mountain platform.

We therefore feel obligated to make the following announcement to MegaPath's legacy V.35 users:

If they tell you to give up V.35...: If MegaPath tells you one day that you must give up your V.35 hand-off and convert to something with Ethernet hand-off because they are discontinuing the Lucent platform and can't support your V.35 on any current platform, please contact us immediately, and we will help educate your MegaPath rep that supporting your V.35 on either Copper Mountain or Nokia/Covad is in fact very much possible and even quite simple: if it's CM, open that black plastic box, change one jumper and close it back up; if it's Nokia/Covad, replace it with our OSDCU which is very similar, but supports the Nokia D50 flavor as well.
If they've done the conversion for you...: If a MegaPath/DSL.net field technician has visited you and either changed the internal jumper in your DSLPipe DSU or replaced the whole unit with an identical-looking one, saying that it has to do with migration to a different service platform or somesuch, please let us know as well. We have told our contacts at MegaPath about this conversion, but they didn't seem to care much, and we are very curious to know if our advice has ever been followed or not.