SWINGLERS%BAYLOR.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu (Steve Swingler) (04/18/89)
My local BOC say that they own the feeder cable that is completly within one of my dorms. They plan to remove it. I was under the impression that this cable now belongs to us. Can someone give me the exact ruling in this type of situation. Thank You. Steve Swingler Center for Computing and Information Systems Baylor University
edell%garnet.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Richard Edell) (04/22/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0138m03@vector.dallas.tx.us> SWINGLERS%BAYLOR.BITNET @mitvma.mit.edu (Steve Swingler) writes: >My local BOC say that they own the feeder cable that is completly within one >of my dorms. They plan to remove it. I was under the impression that this >cable now belongs to us. > >Can someone give me the exact ruling in this type of situation. > Unless you've paid for it (either installed it at your expense or bought it from the RBOC) the cable (I believe it's called House Wire) belongs to the regional bell operation company (RBOC). Pacific Bell (in California) has tariffs filed listing prices for purchasing existing house wire. These prices are broken down to things like punch-down blocks, cable feet (by number of pairs), etc. The price is based upon the condition of the cable. If the RBOC owns the cable only the RBOC is allowed to use it (i.e. phone lines before demarkation point). You're not supposed to use the wire for your PBX, computer terminals, or LAN. If you own the cable you can put your PBX, computer terminals, or LAN on it. If you want the RBOC to put thier phone lines on your cable then you're not supposed to have non-FCC registered equipment on the cable. At my former employer we had a pre-divestiture (AT&T manufactured, RBOC owned) PBX using house wire for distribution. This PBX became AT&T property when the RBOCs were prohibited from leasing customer premise equipment. So a situation was created where non-RBOC equipment was using RBOC wire. When we replaced the equipment one of the questions raised by the new equipment vendor (Pac Tel Info Systems) was the ownership of the house cable. We ended-up not buying the cable, just-removing the old PBX and installing the new on the old cable. Later we started wireing computer terminals through the house wire. It was only after I left this employer that I learned about the house wire regulations. I don't know that if I knew the regulations at the time if it would have changed how we wired things. -Richard J. Edell (edell@garnet.berkeley.edu) (415 882-7133)