Abstract: A plurality of metallic telephone lines carrying both baseband POTS (plain old telephone service) and DSL (digital subscriber line) or ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) signals originate at customer premises and pass through a common field cabinet enroute to a telephone central office. Baseband POTS signals flow in an undisturbed manner through the field cabinet and maintain the normal, highly reliable, communication between the subscriber premises and the central office telephone switch. At the field cabinet, DSL/ADSL signals are removed from the metallic telephone line and are then communicated between the field cabinet and the central office using fiber optic broadband transmission. Fiber optic transmission increases the allowed distance between the ADSL transceiver located at the customer location and the respective ADSL transceiver located in the telephone central office.