atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Worrisome Dmarc Wiring?

I recently encountered a customer with a Dmarc and associated wiring that has me a little worried. Here is a photo of the area:

https://www.digitalsonance.com/dmarc.jpg

I was standing in a water when I took the photo (for some reason there are drainage issues on that side of the building). None the less, the amount of exposed wiring and the choice of location for the NIU for the customer's T1 data line are a bit frustrating. My worry is that weather (or someone with a pair of wire cutters) could do a significant amount of damage that could bring our operations down some day.

First of all, am I overreacting? I was planning on rewiring everything from the Dmarc back to the wiring closet, but I'd like to get as much of this resolved in one shot. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

Is that smurf with all the tywraps supposed to be th e feed to the phone closet? Is that your side or LEC's? And what is that on the top?

Yes, the lines that are zip tied to the conduit lead back to the wiring closet, so I assume that is on "our" side since it is coming out of the dmarc. The box on top houses the NIU and smartjack for the T1 data circuit, which was installed by Qwest (they were the ones who ran the exposed CAT5 from the dmarc up to the NIU, then the exposed wire from the smartjack back into the building).

No, you will be fine. This installation is actually one of the cleaner ones out there. Those outdoor T1 NIDs are pretty well-built and heavily-gasketed. As for the underground cable, that's not your problem anyway. No matter how good of a job they do installing the NID, it's still only going to function as well as the cable feeding it.

If you want to see a real horror story, check this one out:



By the way, the customer decided that it was too expensive to clean this up.

Ed, I don't see a single wasp nest in there, nor any black widow spiders! Nice! [Another classic photo for Clinton's Structured Cabling Course!]

Welcome to the board, TechHead!

hey Ed did you ever finish that job?

No, I don't like it either. With a commercial building like that I always insist that the ILEC bring the OSP cable into the building and install a terminal there. I don't think you are overreacting, this could be a real security issue. This probably came about from ignorance on the owner's part or it could be sparky had a hand in this when it was installed.

Is that BX cable I see coming out of a 4" round box? Even sparky wouldn't do that!

Problem is now its going to cost $$$$$ if you want them to do it over and move it.

-Hal

Yes,.......TechHead around here that would be considered a clean looking Dmarc.

Not by my standards but Bell's.

Would I be allowed to relocate the NIU to inside the building in the wiring closet? It hooks to "our" side of the dmarc, but I'm not sure where the line of responsibility is drawn. If so, then I could simply run a single piece of conduit from the wiring closet to the dmarc. If not, my rewiring job might be more "involved" in which case I will ask the customer if they wish to chip out a $2k to replace both units and have them moved inside. Apparently they have complained of phone service issues (noisy lines especially when it is raining) and I was much surprised to open the NIU today to find water inside of it.

Actually that building terminal may not be considered an NIU, what's it look like on the inside? I know they (Qwest) have a lot of MC10 building terminals around here where the customer is terminated right into the MC10, but this is a building terminal and belongs to Telco. They are required to give you a FCC approved DEMARK, this could be used as leverage to get the interface moved into the building.