Copper Mountain was a very fine DSL company, which sadly exists no more. CM DSLAMs are built as solid as tanks, and they were used by the venerable old Rhythms DSL network, which later became WorldCom's Enterprise DSL network and which now also sadly exists no more thanks to the bean counters at Verizon.
Most relevant to our project though is that CM was one of the earliest DSL pioneers, focused mostly on business DSL users (i.e., SDSL and IDSL), and their SDSL and IDSL services were more like traditional leased lines than any competing SDSL flavor we know of. Contrary to what we had originally thought, CM had never used ATM on their SDSL or IDSL lines, and they had always used the traditional sync serial bit stream model just like traditional leased lines. Two manufacturers of CM-compatible CPE had even once developed (with CM's support and endorsement undoubtedly) what seems to have been real bona fide DSUs for CM SDSL! (These were Larscom CupreDSU and Netopia D7100.)
With Rhythms and CM itself being gone, we thought that there are no more major DSL providers left who provide SDSL served from CM DSLAMs, and that all remaining operational CM DSLAMs belong to small town providers who run a DSLAM or two by themselves independent of any major network. However, we have since learned about DSL.net (now part of MegaPath), another largish network (although not as large as Rhythms) also based on CM DSLAMs. They appear to serve SDSL from CM DSLAMs to the present day, but unfortunately they have a rather limited geographic footprint (see our write-up of MegaPath/DSL.net).
Let's just hope, wish and send our positive intent that those fine folks who still operate CM DSLAMs stay in business! (No need to worry about the DSLAMs themselves — they are built so solid that they'll probably outlive their operators.)
If you succeed in getting a CM SDSL or IDSL line, how do you connect to it?
Well, if it's a bridged circuit, there is nothing better than CM's own CopperRocket. But what if it's a routed circuit and you want to connect it to the router of your choice? Well, if it's SDSL, our OSDCU will serve as a perfect DSU for CM SDSL. What about IDSL? Well, you should be able to use a generic IDSL DSU, whatever actual gadget we end up building for this function. Read our IDSL page.
Also please read about CMCP, applicable to both SDSL and IDSL.
We, the group running this project, are proud to own a CopperEdge 200 DSLAM ourselves! (It's from eBay.) The unit is fully loaded with 6 SDSL line cards and 2 IDSL ones, each serving 24 ports. That's a lot of SDSL lines!
We still need to find a -48 VDC power supply for this lovely beast. It is said to need 18 A.
We are even thinking about putting this DSLAM in service somewhere and becoming a small town CM SDSL provider ourselves. (Just imagine ordering an SDSL line from the creator of the OSDCU!) These plans are currently in a very nebulous dream phase though.