One early effort was the EtherLoop technology invented at Nortel Networks in 1996, and then spun off into the company Elastic Networks in 1998. Its principal inventor was Jack Terry. The hope was to combine the packet-based nature of Ethernet with the ability of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology to work over existing telephone access wires. The name comes from local loop, which traditionally describes the wires from a telephone company office to a subscriber. The protocol was half-duplex with control from the provider side of the loop. It adapted to line conditions with a peak of 10 Mbit/s advertised, but 4-6 Mbit/s more typical, at a distance of about . Symbol rates were 1 megabaud or 1.67 megabaud, with 2, 4, or 6 bits per symbol. The EtherLoop product name was registered as a trademark in the US and Canada. The EtherLoop technology was eventually purchased by Paradyne Networks in 2002, which was in turn purchased by Zhone Technologies in 2005.