ADSL works over wet string (2017)
ADSL, being essentially a form of alternating current, will pass through an air gap. I was enlightened on this by an AT&T tech who pointed out that one of my ADSL lines had several breaks and could not carry DC but the ADSL signal still came through. The other line was dead so I was running essentially on one wire with an earth ground. Here is an interesting discussion:"Phone line with 1 broken wire still gets ADSL2"https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/9yzp5wr3Anyway, my hat is off to the people who designed and implemented ADSL.