Definition of: Switched 56
Switched 56

A dial-up digital service provided by local and long distance telephone companies. There is a monthly fee and per-minute charge like the analog voice network. For connection, a DSU/CSU is used instead of a modem. Switched 56 uses a 64 Kbps channel, but one bit per byte is used for band signaling, leaving 56 Kbps for data.