HEllo,
Go to www.dslreports.com and use their tools utility to check the distance from your house to the CO (Central office). When I first got DSL I was 9000 ft away and had good service, in my new house I am 12,000 feet away and I have better service (their equipment got better). The DSL signal is carried over the standard copper wires and has nothing to do with fiber optics. The copper wires for phone usually carry signals in the 5khz range and the DSL signals start at 20khz. These numbers are just examples but the ratio is right, the DSL signal is 4 - 5 times higher. So with increased freq. you get increased bandwidth for internet. When they install they give you little filters that you put on your non-computer line. These filters filter all of the high freq. stuff that is intended for the computer. Without the filter on the regular phone the conversations sound all staticky. I have had DSL for 2 1/2 years and have had zero trouble. The best thing you can do is run a direct line from the outside telephone hookup to where you want the computer, this way you get no splices etc. If the installer knows what he is doing you go outside to the box and you run two lines; one for the computer without a filter and one for the regular phones and you put one filter on that before it branches out everywhere. This is nice because then you don't have to use all of those little filters on each phone.