Hasn't come up yet so I put forth a little conjecture.
I believe that some sort of Public Utilities Commission that
monitors (or did) on a federal level that imposed some performance issues
and potential fines - but I can't find the source of the statement. But
considering they had no effective competition, were a monopoly, and didn't
reduce your phone bill if the phones were not working (much like cable
providers when the cable goes out). I doubt that the reliability figures
were self imposed. One would hope that good engineering would drive high
reliability etc, but when staring into the sharpened pencil of a bean
counter that might be slightly optimistic.
On the other hand, since the CO runs off of DC since they have banks
of batteries supported by diesel generators that kick in when the Public
power grid goes down and diesel generators to back up the batters. It
significantly increased their availability figures. Since they have to run
wires to your house anyway - providing the battery to the home isn't that
big of a leap for them. I'm not sure why they only guarantee 4 hours - the
batteries will go that long without recharging but as long as they can keep
fuel in the generators they can continue to run the CO. Remote locations,
generally have an autoswitch over to the generator, and if I remember a
comment made by a telecom employee once, the generator fuel level is
intended to operate for 3 days. That way they can get folks up there in time
to replenish.
Gary
The AC keeps the batteries charged for the most part, with the equipment
primarily operating from -48 Vdc. In my experience I've only seen one piece
of AC powered equipment in the lineup - and that was a CSICO router in a
small CLEC.
My opinions only but with some justification and experience.
From: Peter L. Tarver [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 1:43 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Should telephones still work during power loss?
Hi, Chris.
The question then becomes, fines for what? My proposition
is that network reliability is not specifically legislated
or regulated by the FCC or in California, with some
exceptions applied to 911 services. Perhaps the Politburo
in Albany has taken a different tack.
The fines might be levied for inadequate, incomplete,
improper (whatever that might mean) reporting of outages (or not reporting
at all) and not planning for providing plans to ameliorate similar outages,
but not for the outage itself, save possibly for blatant negligence or
fraud.
The thing of it is, that Ma Bell had internal reliability requirements, long
before divestiture and before the levels of regulation in place today
occurred.
It's always best to take everything a salesman tells you
with a healthy dose of skepticism. The truth can get
stretched to near transparency for the sake of a commission
on multimillion dollar contracts.
I still say money is king and that is what drives most of
the reliability concerns for carriers.
Regards,
Peter L. Tarver, PE
Product Safety Manager
Homologation Services
Sanmina-SCI Corp.
2000 Ringwood Ave.
San Jose, CA 95131-1749
V: 408-904-2081
F: 408-904-2095
M: 408-234-3529
[email protected]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Maxwell [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 12:54 PM
>
>
> I clipped a little segment from Peter's email below
>
>
> ////////////////// SNIP ///////////////////////////////
> So this whole reliability thingy is primarily aimed at
> making certain communications systems are up for emergency service
> providers, especially government entities, with at least some nodding
> to e911. Nearly everywhere is that word,
> "voluntary."
> /////////////// END SNIP /////////////////////////////////
>
> Voluntary; but backed by stiff fines in some cases.
>
> There are fines levied against phone companies
> for outages. Our
> salespeople have become very artful at using
> these fines as leverage to
> sell our equipment (which detects breaks and faults)
>
> The FCC regulations (CFR 47) may not be the only
> place to look for such
> fines. You may also have to look at state and
> local regulations. Even
> though the phone (and utility) companies are
> "deregulated" many states
> have "authorities" and other bureaucratic
> entities to "oversee" (notice
> I didn't use "regulate") these "deregulated" industries.
>
> One response in this thread mentioned the
> regulatory heaven called "The
> People's Republik of Kalifornia" Let me tell you
> something brother...
> (or should I say Comrade?) Kalifornia has
> nothing on the great
> bureaucratic machine in Albany, NY.
>
> Without going into the merits (or demerits) of
> our various state
> legislatures; I think that it's safe to say that
> many of them have taken
> a look at the telecom industry and drafted
> various plans to penalize
> (read "tax") various aspects of it. It would
> surprise me if network
> reliability was overlooked as a revenue source.
>
> If you really want to know what fines are levied
> against phone companies
> for outages...talk to a salesperson from a
> company that sells network
> monitoring and repair equipment :-) Sadly, I'm
> not a salesman...so I
> can't offer any more advice
>
> Chris Maxwell
> Design Engineer (not a salesman)
> Nettest
>
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