Any portion of a loop that is not in the direct talking path between the central office and the service user's terminating equipment. A bridged tap may be an unused cable pair connected at an intermediate point or an extension of the circuit beyond the service user's location. Note: A bridged tap creates an impedance mismatch within the transmission line, which creates signal reflections. These reflections are generally not noticed in standard (POTS) voicegrade service, but become significant with high frequency (xDSL--which can be ADSL, asynchronous DSL, or SDSL, synchronous DSL, etc. ) and digital transmission (DDS and DS1) services.