Sometimes people think they need to protect their equipment against the possibility of a one-time disaster. The Birmingham Public Library learned that damaging power surges are not just bad luck or once-in-a-lifetime disasters - they are very real dangers produced by thunderstorm activity and a variety of other causes that are continually present in the environment inside and outside any building.
The Birmingham Public Library information system is a very large operation, with 40 remote locations connected to its network. Previously, the library had not focused on protection and was simply using a selection of inexpensive UPSs and line conditioners which did not provide an adequate defense against the dangers of poor quality power.
Several times, harmful electrical disturbances came through electrical and phone lines, totally destroying the equipment at some of the library's remote locations. Of course, it cost time and money to replace the equipment, but it wasn't until lightning struck twice at the same location that the Birmingham Public Library realized the importance of protection. One particular library facility was hit by a power surge two times, probably caused by lightning in the area. A terminal server and an Ethernet bridge ISDN line were destroyed, costing the library approximately $2000 each time. With the realization that lightning can strike twice, comes a more immediate desire for complete protection. "We had to replace the equipment both times. That's why I had to find someone who knew how to deal with this sort of problem," explained PT, Automation Services Coordinator for the Birmingham Public Library.
"We wanted to avoid losing anymore expensive equipment," PT continued. "These surges were starting to add significant costs to the library because they cause such a high level of damage. The terminal server, for example, the most expensive part of the system, was not repairable after the surge. It was more than just blowing a fuse - the equipment was beyond recovery, permanently inoperable. And it's not covered under the warranty because the surge is considered a natural disaster. What they are telling you is that you should be protecting it with equipment from someone like ONEAC.
It was possible that this location would never get hit again, but the problem had to be addressed. The library needed assurance that its equipment would be safe. After talking to specialists at ONEAC, the Birmingham Public Library installed an On Series UPS, a Power Conditioner, and OnLine Communication Line Protectors at the site.
Sometime after all the equipment was installed, the same location experienced a third power surge. "A television set and terminal and several other pieces of equipment were destroyed by the surge, but the information systems equipment protected by ONEAC was saved," said PT. "After the second power surge, I know we needed to address the problem. But now, after the third one, I am thoroughly convinced that the ONEAC equipment is vital to the protection of the system."
"Seeing how often it can happen to the same location has given us a new perspective," PT concluded. "We are now looking at protecting our 39 other sites with similar ONEAC equipment."
© 1997 ONEAC Corp.
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Put yourself in GS's shoes. You've just been promoted to director of operations at one of the largest interconnect companies in the southeast. Your charter is to increase profitability by minimizing service contract costs.
It's your third day on your new assignment. You arrive at your office to find 48 emergency service requests from customers whose telephone systems have been knocked out by a thunderstorm. It takes your entire service team 6 days working 14 to 16 hours a day to put these customers back on line.
It's every interconnect company's worst nightmare. But for Nashville-based Southwestern Telecom, Inc. (STI), this episode was a wake-up call for telephone system power protection.
Once service had been restored for those 48 customers, GS went looking for a way to prevent history from repeating itself. Calls to various industry contacts led him to ONEAC Corporation, a leader in the development of power protection systems in Libertyville, Ill.
"The ONEAC representative was there to help almost immediately after I contacted him," recalls GS, now vice-president of operations at STI. "After checking out the situation, he offered to install power protection systems in ten problem sites as a trial. I was especially impressed by the fact that they did this trial at their expense and that they let us choose the sites and evaluate the results."
The sites GS selected had a history of service problems, not just weather-related problems. In just 90 days, service calls to customers participating in the trial dropped by a whopping 62%.
GS was quickly convinced of the benefits of power conditioning as well as uninterruptible power supplies (UPS). "We started out with a concern about lightning damage. At first we didn't understand the problem with transients - how they can damage telephone equipment over a period of time. We now know that all kinds of everyday things like fluorescent lights, motors in manufacturing equipment, and elevators can dramatically affect electronic equipment and cause problems with phone systems."
Based on the results of the 10-site trial, ONEAC power protection systems were automatically specified for all STI telephone system installations. Within one year ONEAC power conditioning was a requirement for all STI service contracts.
STI also followed up with selected accounts to educate customers on the benefits of adding power protection to their current systems. STI demonstrated its belief in the importance of power protection and its commitment to customer service by passing through the cost of these upgrades with no markup. According to GS, there were no customer complaints about the relatively modest upgrade costs. Customers understood the benefits.
A few years later STI once again became a ONEAC test site. This time the issue was telephone line protection. Although conditioned UPSs and power conditioning systems helped solve power problems, telephone lines had problems of their own. ONEAC was in the final phase of developing its telephone line protection systems and invited STI to become a partner in field trials. GS gladly obliged.
All it took was seeing the results from three or four test sites to convince GS that ONEAC telephone line protection should also be a standard feature of STI systems. He explains his rationale this way: "Phone systems are always connected to both power lines and telephone lines. Phone lines can pick up just enough extra electrical interference to zap trunk cards in the phone system. These problems are especially common during severe weather, but components are constantly bombarded with this type of interference, and they're more likely to fail as a result. The combinations of power and telephone line protection can extend the life of the components almost indefinitely - assuming of course that components are undamaged to begin with."
GS reports that including telephone line protection in STI systems increases installation costs by less than 1%.
Since that thunderstorm blew through Nashville, STI's average service response has dropped from two days to about two hours for routine service calls and less than one hour for emergencies. The company's total customer base in Nashville area alone has grown from 1,500 accounts in 1987 to about 4,000 today. Efficiencies produced by ONEAC power and telephone line protection systems have helped STI service more than twice as many customers in a fraction of the time with the same number of service technicians.
"We strive for zero service calls," says GS. Thanks in part to power and [telephone] line protection, STI is getting mighty close to that goal.
Founded in 1973, Southeastern Telecom, Inc. is a full-service telecommunications provider serving 8,000 customers across the country. In addition to its corporate office in Nashville, STI maintains offices in Memphis and Knoxville, Tennessee; Greenville and Columbia, South Carolina; and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. STI is Tennessee's largest private telephone and communications company and the 12th largest interconnect company in the country.
© 1996 ONEAC Corp.
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To keep phone systems operating at all times, a worldwide manufacturer of photographic and optical products uses ONEAC telephone line protectors in many remote facilities in the New England area.
The Problem
The worldwide manufacturer needed ONEAC line protectors in their remote facilities because numerous lightning strikes were damaging line cards and telephone sets. "When lightning strikes, there is a potential for 8,000-10,000 volts to be induced on a phone line. Lightning takes the path of least resistance and that happens to be phone lines," explained Don Forgie, Williams Communications Project Manager for the installations.
The amount of damage depends on the direction of the surge and how intense the hit is. When lightning hits a remote, it could damage a digital line card and the 16 ports on the card. The line card is connected to the switch that makes the individual phones function. When lightning strikes, the whole card needs to be replaced because the phones no longer operate.
Just one damaged card can lead to chaos in a single department because there are approximately 16 phones connected to each card. The controller card, which leads a dial tone to each phone line, can also be damaged from lightning. Many times, the manufacturer had to pay for premium time for the labor since most problems occur after hours, on weekends or on holidays. It can cost up to $70,000 or more per lightning strike.
Forgie explained that when the phone system is out of service, there can be 300-1500 dial tones down at once. The switchboard cannot process incoming calls so customer calls are lost.
An average of 2 million calls a month are processed through the switchboard. When phones are down, it is bad for business.
The large research and development department also relies heavily on the phone system for outbound calls. Without phones, they can not complete their day-to-day responsibilities.
Forgie stated that the most recent lightning hit was at the host location. The surge burned out $75,000 worth of equipment.
The Search
The manufacturer needed a higher level of protection at the host site due to a series of lightning hits in a short period of time. They wanted to get the best fix for the situation. An independent electrical testing company was called in to check all groundings and cables. All the elements of the problem and the possible solutions like changing the type of protectors to a lower voltage for the digital line, were reviewed.
Grounding is also very important. It has been reviewed, checked and reviewed again over time.
"The manufacturer realized that they needed a higher level of protection and ONEAC fulfilled that need," explained Forgie.
The Solution
Forgie stated that there are over 15 remote facilities at the manufacturer that use ONEAC telecom line protectors.
Each remote facility supports between 200 and 700 telephone lines. The host has a main switch that links each of the remotes, manufacturing facilities and office spaces by underground cabling. ONEAC line protectors are connected to the cables that bind one building to another.
"In locations where they're needed most, we're gradually replacing all line protectors with ONEAC products," Forgie explained.
In 1995, Northern Telecom recommended that they use a solid state tip and ring protector that would clamp at a lower voltage. ONEAC was a perfect match, the 6-DP line protector clamps at 70 volts. The previous line protectors, AT&T model WE4C, were gas tube based and clamped at 400 volts.
The ONEAC 6-DP line protector is also used in remote facilities where there is a mix of digital and analog lines. The manufacturer had been using a standard ONEAC tip and ring protector and upgraded to data protectors. The 6-DP protector was designed for digital equipment and helped to guard against lightning damage.
To ensure that the ONEAC protectors were installed correctly, a site survey was conducted by an ONEAC representative. The representative verified that the cable shields were properly bonded to the ground and that the ONEAC protectors were installed in NEMA approved protector bases.
About half of the remote facilities use ONEAC line protectors. The ONEAC line protectors are mainly used in remote facilities that have underground cabling running to another building.
ONEAC products are also used on "trouble sites". Trouble sites are those locations known to be susceptible to lightning strikes because they are located on hills or ledges. Some remotes may have sustained multiple lightning hits in the past or are located a sizeable distance from other buildings.
The manufacturer also brought a new remote facility on-line this year and installed 1,000 new ONEAC tip and ring protectors. They also installed 4,000 ONEAC line protectors this year and 3,000 last year at various locations.
"They have not had any problems since installing ONEAC products. There were huge storms in June on the East Coast and I expected a lot of 'out of service calls' but there were none. The ONEAC line protectors worked like they are suppose to," Forgie said.
During those June storms, one remote was hit by lightning. There was a loss of power but the phone systems stayed on-line.
"There weren't any problems! By using ONEAC tip and ring protectors, customers can get through regardless of weather problems," Forgie said.
© 1998 ONEAC Corp.
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BellSouth Public Communications (BSPC) in Birmingham, AL provides telephone services through stand-alone public pay phones and through prison pay phone applications.
There are approximately 200,000 BellSouth pay phones covering nine states in the Southeast. BSPC also services pay phones at 300-400 federal, state, county and local prisons throughout 10 states.
The Problem
Prison applications are “won” on a contract basis. BSPC owns and installs the pay phones at each prison. The prison receives commission on all inmate phone calls processed through these pay phones.
Bibb County Jail in Centreville, AL opened in mid-December, 1998 and includes 108 BellSouth pay phones. These rugged looking pay phones are not coin-operated. The inmate just dials and the charge is billed to the customer accepting the phone call.
Prison pay phones that are down for even a short time can have a dramatic affect on revenue. Not only is there the cost to fix and/or replace the equipment, but the possibility that the customer will become frustrated with the service and pull the contract.
Prison officials are not the only ones that have to cope when phone lines are down. Inmates become agitated when faced with the prospect of not communicating with friends and family for an undetermined amount of time.
The inability to place a phone call can be enough to cause a riot. Cutting off inmates communications with the outside world, even for a few days, means extra guards are needed and in some situations, can cause a prison lock-down.
The Search
“BSPC evaluated other UPS solutions. None offered the protection or power conditioning of ONEAC products,” explained Dennis Migueles, BSPC technical support manager.
Migueles added that some of the other UPSs are so big and heavy that they are difficult to install.
The Solution
“BSPC’s criteria is very stringent for prison pay phone applications. ONEAC’s specifications were a level above any of the other UPSs that were evaluated. ONEAC’s power conditioning performance is unequalled and ONEAC’s UPSs make installations easy,” said Migueles.
“ONEAC has a wide range of products and service is always taken care of in a timely manner,” Migueles added.
“ONEAC prevents power surges on A/C lines. There is a lot of heavy machinery in the area that can disrupt power. ONEAC products help reduce transient voltage in individual telephone lines,” explained Migueles. “BSPC has been using ONEAC products to protect their customers’ phone equipment for over a year.”
The Bibb County pay phone lines are also connected to recorders that record all inmate conversations on the phone lines. ONEAC 2000VA rackmount UPSs are connected to both the 108 phone line system and the Dictaphone equipment.
The phone lines also have ONEAC tip and ring protectors. The administrative computer, with an attached ONEAC 600VA UPS, is used to compile all call detail records for administrative analysis and two telephone processors.
Bibb County currently has 108 inmate lines. In other prison applications, ONEAC protects anywhere from 156 lines in Alabama to 400 lines in Virginia to 600 lines in Georgia. ONEAC UPSs prevent transient voltages from disrupting the normal flow in day-to-day operations and protect equipment from catastrophic lightning and electrical surges so prevalent in rural areas.
“BSPC is confident the phone system is protected properly and will sustain an outage,” said Migueles.
“Bibb County will really see the results of the ONEAC products in the spring and summer when they’re put to the test.
That’s when they will really appreciate ONEAC and see how well they work. Southern states are the ‘lightning capital of the world’. Weather related problems like lightning are the cause of outages 90 percent of the time. With ONEAC, our worries are laid to rest,” added Migueles.
© 1999 ONEAC Corp.
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