DACS

DACS may refer to:

Digital Access Carrier System

Digital Access Carrier System (DACS) is the name used by British Telecom (BT Group plc) in the United Kingdom for a 0+2 Pair gain system.

Usage

For almost as long as telephones have been a common feature in homes and offices, telecommunication companies have regularly been faced with a situation where demand in a particular street or area exceeds the number of physical copper pairs available from the pole to the exchange.

Until the early 1980s, this situation was often dealt with by providing shared or 'party' lines, which were connected to multiple customers. This raised privacy problems since any subscriber connected to the line could listen to (or indeed, interrupt) another subscriber's call.

With advances in the size, price, and reliability of electronic equipment, it eventually became possible to provide two normal subscriber lines over one copper pair, eliminating the need for party lines. The more modern ISDN technology based digital systems that perform this task are known in Britain by the generic name 'DACS'.