Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!bu.edu!telecom-request From: mike@nyquist.bellcore.com (Mike Lukacs 21341) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: The Order of Repair Message-ID: Date: 18 Mar 91 22:17:10 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Reply-To: mike@nyquist.bellcore.com Organization: Bellcore - Digital Video Research Lines: 54 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 216, Message 1 of 10 In article , john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: |> This talk about the problems in Rochester reminds me of a telling |> situation that happened right here in my neighborhood a couple of |> years ago. |> So it breaks down like this: |> The cable company had its act together. Its service restoral (while |> hardly essential) was first rate. PG&E took three hours to restore |> Pac*Bell, who was too wimpy to even begin work on its cable until the |> next day. I had a similar situation in my neighborhood ten years ago; a hurricane took down some trees and all the phone and power lines in several places. Power was restored in 24 Hrs., Phones took three days. However! Consider the magnitude of the various restoration processes! Cable television is a low voltage tree structured service. The cable company needed to get one man with a lift truck or a ladder to splice ONE coaxial cable in two places to bypass the damaged section. The power company had to first make the area safe by removing all wire remnants and cutting back tree limbs that came too close etc. They then had to rehang in a well insulated manner, and reconnect TWO to SIX high voltage wires. The telephone company had to sort out, "buzz out", unscramble, install and connect several hundred or several thousand (!!) subscriber lines. Naturally this takes considerably longer to do. In the case of my neighborhood, the power company responded and had men on the scene in four hours. (Ours was not the only problem they had that day.) The local phone company had people investigating the damage at about the same time, but could not begin repairs until the power electricians were finished. Power is considered to be a more essential service, and since all are on the same poles, the phone repairers are REQUIRED to stand back and not interfere with the power work, both for the safety of all involved, and to promote a speedier repair of the power lines. I suspect that in your case, the cable company was able to bypass the affected section via a noninterfering route, else they too would have had to wait. DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed | M. E. Lukacs NVC-3X-330 in the above are my own, and not | Bell Communications Research (BELLCORE) those of Bell Communications Research.| 331 Newman Springs Road By Law, | Red Bank, New Jersey, USA 07701-7040 | (201) or (908) 758-2876 FAX: 758-0889 mike@nyquist.bellcore.com