@ les 70,
Just to add that all connections, disconnections and maintenance is normally done by our good BT Openreach friends (even in the middle of winter with the rain hissing down) within the PCP leaving the FTTC alone.
Even if there was a question about the integrity of the inter-cabinet tie cables or the actual DSLAM ports, I suspect the standard solution would be to select a different pair circuit and leave the FTTC completely out of the investigation.
Were that to occur I suspect some DSLAM re-configuration would also be required.
Below is a link to a low res picture of a PCP cabinet I took last summer, during the lunch break, just as the cables were being terminated in the FTTC.
If you carefully count all the wires you will see that the E side (on the LHS) and the D side (RHS) tie cables have 100 twisted pairs in bunches of 10 pairs.
As there are no FTTC connections yet, all the original E to D jumpers are still intact mostly running along the top of the cabinet.
When a new FTTC service is required the
corresponding pairs from the same bunch in both tie cables have new jumper pairs crimped and then punched down into the IDC blocks to connect the service to the appropriate E side and D side pairs.
In these parts, this type of IDC cabinet is in a minority with most using the loose pairs construction as illustrated in the second picture link (Before this particular cabinet was re-sleeved to accommodate the tie cables); in which case a new jumper pair is just crimped to the pairs in the bunch at one end and to the appropriate E side and D side pairs at the other. Finally here we also have yet another construction where the tie cables are made off onto new blocks of IDCs with the twin jumper pairs now having punched down connections at both ends. Ergo our long-suffering friends can be confronted with at least three different configurations of connections whether its pitch black or otherwise. What astonishes me is that, with the exception of BE's case, BT O staff get it right first time for the vast majority !
Some of us might have wry smiles when we observe Mr Livingstone saying quite earnestly that BT are investing vast amounts of money in this 20 year solution.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/66247741/BT-IDC-PCPhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/42050356/Typical-BT-PCP-SectionKind regards,
Walter
PS I'm fully expecting (and hope) BS will contribute to my little essay !