[99209] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: shameful-cabling gallery of infamy - does anybody know where
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Frank Coluccio)
Mon Sep 10 02:41:32 2007
From: Frank Coluccio <frank@dticonsulting.com>
To: nanog@nanog.org, Jay Hennigan <jay@west.net>
Reply-To: frank@dticonsulting.com
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 01:10:39 -0500
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
The Valuation of a Disconnect
During the 1968-1971 time frame, the new line installations at New York Tel=
ephone
Company [now Verizon] all but came to a grinding halt in its busiest commer=
cial
districts of New York City. No, not because of labor actions or a strike
(although a strike actually did ensue late during this period, as described=
in a
moment), but because some genius at headquarters came to a startling realiz=
ation
that there was no money to be made in disconnects. A disconnect, for clarit=
y, is
an order to remove a line, or to remove portions of a line that were rearra=
nged
or upgraded. Consequently, the main distribution frames within central offi=
ces
(some of which were L-shaped and a city block and a half long) became swamp=
ed
with copper wires to the point that technicians could no longer find the
termination blocks on which "soldering lugs" were located to affix new circ=
uits,
for the mountain of singles, pairs, triplets and quads that had accumulated=
and
literally buried several of the larger frames.=20
Fortunately for the telco, the union did eventually strike in 1971, but for
better pay and working conditions and obviously not due to reasons sated ab=
ove,
although the strike nevertheless allowed the telco's management to call in
legions of management staffers from the other 22 Affiliated Bell Operating
Companies across the nation (which they'd not ordinarily do in the presence=
of
union workers during normal times) to assist in its rescue that was effected
through a massive initiative aimed at removing untold tons of dead wiring. =
During
this period the telco was shielded from the burdens of new line installatio=
ns by
virtue of the strike as it feigned being understaffed (until the mess was
cleared, and then new lines began going in like a charm, which gave managem=
ent
the opportunity to gloat over how fast things could "really" be done!). Bu=
t the
lesson had been learned the hard way that disconnects actually do matter, a=
nd
they need to be administered in much the same way as do new line orders or =
any
other "profitable" offering.
I once had access but no longer do to a set of photos that illustrated the
"waterfall" effects of the cables overflowing NY Tel MDFs at the W50th and =
E56th
St COs. If anyone here has a link to those photos or a copy of them, kindly=
post
or send offlist. TIA.=20
Frank=20=20
--------
On Mon Sep 10 1:14 , Jay Hennigan sent:
>
>Vinny Abello wrote:
>
>> One of the stranger things a field tech of ours encountered wasn't neces=
sarily
bad wiring (although it's not great), but the fact that the demarc was loca=
ted
next to the toilet in the bathroom. Naturally, the constant humidity caused=
bad
corrosion problems and other issues with their telco services. :) So as a g=
eneral
rule of thumb, avoid putting your telco and/or network gear next to the cra=
pper
or the services the equipment is meant to provide might also stink.=20
>>=20
>> http://users.tellurian.com/vabello/bathroom-demarc.jpg
>
>On the plus side, they didn't have to go far for a ground.
>
>--
>Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Engineering - jay@impulse.net
>Impulse Internet Service - http://www.impulse.net/
>Your local telephone and internet company - 805 884-6323 - WB6RDV
