Internet speed limits?

I’ve seen computer ads where a disclaimer states that Federal law limits DL speeds to 53k, over a regular modem. Is this true, and more importantly, why? I’m sure that at some point in the Dark Ages before the Net exploded there was a reason to limit speeds, but with ISDN, & DSL running through phone lines, it now seems rather odd. Was there any discussion before the Feds got involved? Was there a fear that speeds over 53k would over-heat phone lines, or wreak havoc in some other way?

I know that their are no limits to download speeds subject to law (at least not in Canada) … DSL (in its many flavours), Cable, ISDN, T-1, fiber, etc … all greatly surpass that number for download speeds …

that said, I do recall reading that over the PSTN (public switched telephone network - I think), there are regulations to transmission speeds … I would think with the reasoning be to not overload existing bandwidth as lines carry necessary regular phone transmissions … but ultimately I am not sure.

http://www.56k.com/cons/53k.shtml

The reason i’ve heard is the possibility of crosstalk interference. to get 56k your modem must cause the line to accept voltages that would spill over onto others in the cable. this would proablly cause everyone’s speed to drop because everyones modem will be aptempting the higher voltage 56k. Also I think that it is more likely that since dsl,isdn, and t1’s along w/ other high speed data lines might be disrupted. now thoses lines are big bucks and the phone co isn’t going to risk that so you can get an extra 3k on a pots line

Damn - I had a post all prepared, but KeithT’s link explains it all.

The FCC has proposed to remove this restriction. I can’t seem to find the status of the proposal. If they indeed have removed or will remove the restriction, it won’t take effect immediately; a lot of ISP modems will require reprogramming.

FCC Proposes to Eliminate Barrier to Modem Speed