CATV, the New Frontier for Telephony Services

If you are one of the many CATV operators offering telephony services over the HFC system or VoIP, then this article offers a way to improve the quality of your service and to reduce your service costs.

Since Alexander Graham Bell first introduced the telephone, it has become a mainstay in most American homes. Latest estimates indicate that approximately 93% to 96% of homes have some kind of telephone service. Until the Telecommunications Act of 1996, this service was provided by the regulated Local Exchange Carriers. But all that has changed; now there is competition and the CATV industry is leading the competitive charge. With more and more CATV operators upgrading to the HFC (Hybrid-Fiber-Coax) system, service quality is improving to the point where operators can provide the telephone service quality standards required by most state and federal agencies. These standards are normally referred to as the "Five Nines" or 99.999% reliability rates. What this means is that 99.999% of the time, when a customer picks up the telephone, there will be dial tone and a call can be completed with no impairments.

Although the network upgrades are in place, the CATV industry is still struggling with the twisted pair wiring inside the customer's premise. As more customers are won over to CATV telephony service, premise wiring issues are increasing. All too often, the customer has had an on-going issue with their incumbent provider which caused them to consider changing to the new CATV service, only to continue having the same service problems.

What is the reason? When service is switched, the CATV technician often lacks the experience and equipment necessary to properly analyze the condition of the premise wiring before the transfer of service takes place. As a result, pre-existing service impairments are transferred to the new provider, in this case the CATV Company. Repeated reports and repeated repair trips cost the company a lot of money in both time and effort.

So, how does a CATV company reduce these costs? Megger has introduced a new multi-function meter called the MIT410. It was designed with the CATV industry in mind. The new unit gives the CATV technician the necessary tool to properly analyze the system and ensure that the transfer of service goes smoothly and with no service impairments. In other words, the job is done right the first time and repeated trips are unnecessary, therefore reducing costs for the company. This test instrument is both simple in design and easy to use, with little or no training required for the technician before using it.

Megger MIT410 Insulation & Continuity Tester - See Pricing and Specifications

If a CATV company is offering a maintenance contract for the customer premise wiring, the MIT410 will help identify existing trouble conditions that can be excluded from the agreement. How many times has a technician been dispatched to repair a jack (or outlet) that is not working, only to find out it has never worked or could not have been working at the time of service activation and should have been excluded from the maintenance agreement? Now the technician is stuck installing new wire and outlets for no cost to the customer. Even the best technicians will usually spend an hour on this type of job; multiply that by several times a day and the cost to the company soars.

Following are only a few examples where the MIT410 can help a CATV company save time and money:

In the insulation resistance mode, a complete evaluation of the inside wiring can be made based on test results:

1. Testing Tip to ground and ring to ground at 250vdc and then across tip and ring at 500vdc, a reading of 100Mohms and above indicates the wiring is in good shape. A reading of between 90Mohms and 100Mohms indicates a marginal condition and may result in service problems, and a reading of less than 90Mohms indicates bad wiring and the problem(s) should be fixed before transferring service. Please note that when performing this test, the customer equipment must be removed or damage may occur.
   
   
2. In the ohms x 1000 mode, the unit acts as an ohmmeter and can be used to trouble shoot the wire to isolate and repair the problem.
   
   
3. In the volts mode, the line voltage and ringing voltage can be determined.