Dry Loop

A dry loop (also known as a dry pair) is an unconditioned leased pair of telephone wire from a telco. The pair does not have a dial-tone or "battery" (continuous electric potential), as opposed to a "wet pair" (a line usually with no dial tone but with battery).

A dry pair was originally used with a security system, but more recently may also be used with DSL equipment or an Ethernet extender to connect two locations, as opposed to a costlier means such as frame relay. The pair in many cases goes through the local central office.

"wet pair" naming comes from the battery used to sustain the loop who was made from wet cells. The wet pair was the one drowned into the battery.

Many carriers market dry loops to independent DSL providers, as a BANA for basic analog loop or in some locales PANA for plain analog loop, OPX (off-premise extension) line, paging circuit, or finally LADS (local area data service).