atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General Telecom News 45,000 Verizon employees on strike

What did you mean by radio circuits? Just curious

Radio lines (most common analog ones are usually labelled RTNA or RT for *really* old ones) are used extensively by police, fire department, government entities etc.

They come as analog and digital, 2-wire and 4-wire, terminated on anything from RJ11 to a smart jack. Pick your poison, so to speak...

In the old days, one used an Ameritech (I believe) test set to work head-to-head with a tester swapping tone etc. Nowadays, there's a module for JDSU HST-3000 that does the same thing.

While they're essentially a point-to-point circuit, they *can* be a pain to properly provision and test.

Most of the people who knew how to provision these - or test them - have retired, especially with last year's enhanced buyouts. I can't tell you how many times - after spending an hour or more on hold to reach the test bureau - I was told to leave a reach number and that someone would call me when they locate a tester who knows (more likely remembers) how to work on these. Kid you not.

My experience - limited to the boroughs of NYC - is that these things always terminate at weirdest possible locations where no one would find you for days - possibly weeks - if you were to fall down the stairs or suffer a heart attack.

The good news is that most people never get to work on them unless they're employed by LEC or a government entity of some kind.

I've seen RTNA on some wiring before, now I know what it is!
Sounds sort of like a BANA circuit.

And better yet, why you shouldn't touch it...

Just kidding... :toast:

https://www.philly.com/philly/busin...y_to_return_Tuesday.html?cmpid=124488429

Looks like it's over...

Yep.

This is from my local's website:

"The Strike ends Tuesday morning but it’s not over.

We will be going back with a full contract extension!

They will resume bargaining in a week."

https://www.cwa1101.net/

I sure hope that's the case. That's the best news I've heard in a while. Best wishes, guys.

I know the question was directed to Dex but I thought I would chime in anyway.

We have a couple of cable techs who are assigned to circuits. They work with us to build and repair circuits and spans lines to our concentrators. So when a trouble comes in on a circuit, CO/Network and Cable both roll at the same time. Most of the time we are some what working together anyway (isolating a bad pair in a span route or something of that nature). This cuts our MTTR way down. Our objective for MTTR is 3 hrs from the time it is reported. Most of the time our average is close to 3hrs. As Dex mentioned some tickets may take 8hrs but others are restored in less than an hour so we usually come close to meeting our objective.

What Ed said!

In the New England Telephone service area, Verizon will first DPO a Special Services technician to investigate possible problems with NIUs and any other Verizon-owned devices/equipment at the customer prem.

A cable crew DPO isn't scheduled until after the technician has determined that the problem is somewhere in the cables between the C.O. and the customer prem.