Can ADSL run on a single wire?

It makes more logical sense to me, after reading FNfal's explanation. Explains why the ADSL had issues at the same time too.

I really just thought it was such a crazy idea, running ADSL on a single wire. Apparently not.
 
Its completely possible to run on only 1 wire. I have seen it happen a few times before - Obviously with reduced performance. ADSL is not carried by the DC on the line, its more like a radio signal. Because of this, it treats a break in the wire more like a capacitance then a disconnect. If the two ends of the break are close to each other, then its quite possible that you will get signal passing but if they are too far apart then it will be attenuated too much to be usable. The more likely answer is you had a break on one of the connections in the exchange - the part of the exchange dealing with telephone comes first. This is connected to the DSLAM for data, and that is connected to the user. If there is a break between the Telephone section of the exchange and the DSLAM, it will mean that you have DATA but no landline service.
 
Now that's interesting. I had the same problem a short while ago - my phone was dead, but fortunately my ADSL continued to work, although Axxess had to reduce the sync speed from 10 to 8 Mb/s.

It took Telkom more than 2 weeks to attend to the problem, which turned out to be a faulty underground cable pair. When I asked the Telkom technician why the ADSL line worked and not the phone, he explained that only one wire of the pair was disconnected and that ADSL would still work on one wire. I was somewhat sceptical, but it appears that he was right!
 
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