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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tim McCormick who wrote (2239)	10/23/1998 6:13:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 12823

Tim, Denver, and All, Ray Jensen did an exceptionally well-written piece here in the Last Mile Thread back in June that had to do with power in HFCs and black coaxial plant systems. He went beyond the obvious telephone powering requirements, and deeper into the model to expose where some other problems exist. Go to: Message 5064420 An excerpt from this post follows: ============begin The majority of existing cable TV systems, including most of those within TCI, lack what can be considered as robust backup power systems for their remote optical nodes and amplifiers in the outside plant. When a power outage occurs, these components rely on distributed battery strings that may last a couple of hours, if they are in good condition. When those batteries hit a certain minimum voltage, a low voltage cutoff usually shuts them down so they don't get ruined. Then the amplifiers and optical node ceases functioning, and the cable system goes dead. However, the power may actually be "on" at many homes in the serving area of the cable plant, depending on how extensive the power outage is. For cable TV service, this is an annoying, but not life threatening deal. However, this type of a power arrangement for a full service telecommunications network including telephone services, would deny dial tone to customers until the power is fully restored. And that can be a bit more serious than just losing the TV picture. ===================end Regards, Frank Coluccio

To: Tim McCormick who wrote (2239)	10/26/1998 10:39:00 AM
From: DenverTechie	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12823

TCI/AT&T would be mailing you batteries every few years. New local battery backup technology claims a life of 5 years before replacement. It has not been around 5 years yet in commercial deployment to test that claim. How's that for Hype? Every cable telephony system we have been working on lately for TCI has the standby power supplies at the nodes to increase reliability for data and telephone, and these local "5 year" batteries placed in the home for telephone service.