Blog

There are many choices and considerations with regards to deploying OSP broadband infrastructure today. Determining what type of underground enclosures to support that infrastructure can seem overwhelming with all of the solutions offered by multiple manufacturers. This article will help provide guidance on navigating through some of those product selection choices.

Meet Kevin Mabie, Northeast Territory Manager, as he discusses his communications industry outlook for the next five years - and how increased access to fiber bandwidth will help drive future growth to rural areas.

When securing a fiber line to a pole, building or at mid-span, installers must be careful not to cause undo stress or strain on that fiber line. If they do, it can cause a break in the line, which in turn would cause an outage/disruption in service. Fixing this would be very expensive and time consuming, not to mention a huge inconvenience for everyone involved (contractor, worker, the public and customer).  

1. Choose anchor site carefully. Rock anchors will only perform effectively in solid competent rock (Class 0 Soil).
2. Drill the hole into the competent rock a minimum depth of 12 inches along the drill steel. Be sure to drill so that the anchor rod will be in line with the guy.
3. Holes should be drilled so the diameter is optimally an 1/8th inch larger than the diameter of the unexpanded anchor. For example, the hole drilled for a R315 is 1-7/8 inch diameter. However, drill bits are usually available in 1/4 inch increments. In practice, a 2 inch diameter hole is drilled for the R3_ series anchors and a 2-1/2 inch dia. hole is drilled for the R1_series anchors. Be sure to thoroughly clean the drilled hole of rock dust and debris.

Underground enclosures, commonly call handholes, pits, or vaults, come in a variety of shapes and sizes and house critical electrical, telecommunications, gas and water service connections. While each underground enclosure application may be different, there are a few installation fundamentals that should be followed to minimize field damage and help insure many years of use.

Small underground enclosures, commonly called handholes or pits, can come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Enclosures house critical electrical, telecommunications, gas, and water service connections. Each installation and application is different, but there are common installation guidelines that when followed will help to minimize field damage and ensure longevity.

Before specifying underground enclosures, one of the first questions to ask yourself is whether or not the enclosure will be used in deliberate traffic applications or non-deliberate traffic applications.

Standoff brackets, sometimes called attachment or extension arms, are used to support conductors, equipment like cutouts and arresters, or communication lines on poles. Communication standoffs are typically utilized when the poles are busy or over utilized to maintain cable separation requirements by keeping communication cables away from other lines, mounts, brackets, etc.

Express splicing and future cable additions are standard in today’s fiber to the home networks. In dense areas, trunk lines can pass through a closure every couple thousand feet, oftentimes with fiber counts in the 288 range or even higher. That’s a lot of buffer tubes to safely store as the network is built. 

The Scenario

As early as 2015, telephone companies no longer supported 4-Wire audio leased lines. This presents an issue for utilities currently operating their line voltage protection or SCADA equipment via 4-Wire leased lines (analog). In some scenarios, full or fractional T1 leased digital data service lines are available for a nominal monthly fee. In other scenarios, leased Ethernet service lines are available at a lesser monthly fee than T1 leased lines. Utilities are looking for a path forward that minimizes operational impact, requires little engineering, and assures comparable security and dependability for their protection and SCADA signaling. See Figure 1 (below).