Talk:Digital subscriber line

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"Direct Subscriber Line"?

I've found numerous examples using the term "direct" instead of "digital" as the acronym for DSL. Long ago, when I was first told what DSL stands for/is, I was told it was "direct subscriber line:" the broadband subscriber made some kind of ""direct"" connection to the ISP yada yada… (Not sure the logic made sense then nor now; wouldn't that mean you could call regular a phone call a Leased line?)

Regardless, I've definitely seen it often enough to still mix the correct and incorrect terms to this day. I'm not sure how to quantify if this is prevalent enough to constitute a note, nor do I know Wikipedia's style on incorrect folk names for stuff, but perhaps it might not be a bad idea to add a disambiguation hatnote, redirect, and/or a footnote on the first line that mentions this [incorrect] expansion? toydotgame ^talk
_contribs 05:10, 14 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If you're familiar with how we handle questions like this, then you know we need to find reliable sources that use this acronym expansion. I don't find it to be particularly prevalent. This law book was my best find in a quick search. Do you have anything better? ~Kvng (talk) 14:36, 18 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

From a cursory search, ignoring some ISP marketing and for-engagement content (news articles etc), I can find a few examples of pages that use "direct:"

• Internet safety article by the City of Cottage Grove, OR — DSL definition is not the main topic of the article
• "Difference Between" article disambiguating broadband and DSL — Article is about DSL

Additionally, he:VDSL uses "direct"—but I have no idea why "digital" wasn't used (very probably a translation error or a misinformed writer more than anything else…).

I also found one physical book:

• Pederson, Jay P. et al. (2001). "International Directory of Company Histories." St. James Press, 38, p. 470 (§ UUNET) ISBN 9781558624436

A quick 'n' dirty Google Scholar search also yields (in descending order of relevance, excluding access-restricted documents):

1. Autoconfiguration for Faster WiFi Community Networks (Ballantyne et al., 2015, p. 938)
2. Novel push-model framework for realizing multi-service MPEG4 streams in broadcast applications (Mohamed, 1993, p. 7 & 92) (​)
3. Factors influencing implementation of telecommunication network equipment projects in kenya: a case of safaricom limited (Mukopi, 2016) (​)

1. NB: HTTP 504 Gateway Timeout consistently at the time of writing, see Web Archive; can't find archived PDF

1. Security risks in mechanical engineering industries (Benson & Rahman, 2011, p. 75) (​)
2. ONLINE SHOPPING SYSTEM CASE STUDY: ELGON COMPANY UGANDA LIMITED (Abiyasaali, 2019, p. 1)
3. School-based language screening among primary school children using telepractice: A feasibility study from India (Raman et al., 2018, p. 2) (​)

A few of these are more directly on the topic of different networking infrastructures, so I'd consider them fit for use as a citation for such an article footnote—despite not being centrally on DSL.

From this quick research, this is the best I've got for "better" thus far… It's hard to find a reliable source for a colloquial misnomer when said sources are probably just using the right word from the get-go lol. toydotgame ^talk
_contribs 16:50, 21 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Good searching but the results are unimpressive. Nothing showing up for "direct subscriber line" in ngrams. I'd say the number of occurrences we've found does not warrant a mention. If that doesn't sit we'll with you, we can reach out to other editors for more opinions. ~Kvng (talk) 02:13, 22 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Nah, I can agree with you. It's just my observation from verbal and written communications, rather than reliable published sources. Only using published sources, we have one book and a few mentions in niche articles: it's not enough to warrant a note.

Thanks for your help! toydotgame ^talk
_contribs 03:34, 22 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]