[Gllug] Proposed broadband improvements

Christopher Hunter cehunter at gb-x.org
Mon May 17 06:16:48 UTC 2010


On Sun, 2010-05-16 at 10:43 +1200, David L Neil wrote:

> If there is no battery/UPS in the cabinet (and just stop to think of the 
> physical security implications of having such installed, all over the 
> place, for a moment!) then the limits of eng/imagine-ering would ask if 
> perhaps there is a telco-power supply running within the ducts alongside 
> the fibers, and presumably sourced/backed-up by the exchange - but then, 
> stranger things have happened at sea!

In the installations I've seen (Muswell Hill and Swindon), there's no
provision whatsoever for power failure at the cabinet.  There's no
copper connection back to the exchange whatsoever, and no UPS facility
in the cabinets.  

During a recent power cut (due to the usual Murphy-Man pickaxe through a
cable in the street caused by the inaccuracy of the "Stats" diagrams for
the area and their failure to use a "CAT") we lost ALL services until
the power was restored (several hours).  

I pointed out to BT that this appeared to be something they'd overlooked
and that the 999 service (obviously) was crippled during the failure.
Their answer was that "everyone has a mobile" so they didn't see it as a
problem!  I also pointed out that this was in contravention of their
Charter, but they simply didn't care.

There are also several other points of possible failure for this
half-baked network, and the BT engineering staff have very few of their
number with even the slightest understanding of the newer technology.
When data rates fall, due to poor fusion joints, dirty optical
connectors or damaged fibre, it's going to be virtually impossible to
raise a fault as long as you can get something over the fibre.

C.

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