...NEWSWIRE...NEWSWIRE...NEWSWIRE.
The Approved Cables Initiative (ACI) has issued a strong warning
about the growing practice of misselling data cable (Cat/Cat 6) products with Copper Clad Aluminium (CCA) which are non-compliant with published national and international standards. Issuing the warning, the ACI has also
alerted the marketplace to a report on the BBC website stating that traditional cable can be replaced with aluminium coated in copper. Although several instances of
installation failures have already been reported in the media, a spate of further failures and the BBC piece has prompted the ACI to speak out and advise against the purchase of CCA products. The potential consequences of
installing Cat 5e cable manufactured with CCA, particularly within installations where Category 5e or a CLASS D network has been specified, are clear and the ACI is advising installers to look for the following warning signs: products described as CCA Cat 5e or Eco Cat 5e, Cat 5e products marketed with a restricted installation length, problems with conductors breaking during the punch- down termination process, problems with oxidisation, and low frequency testing problems associated with the longer installed channels. CE marked products are associated
with reputable brand names and should appear on the product packaging alongside other compliance statements. The ACI is also advising that CCA products are unlikely to stand scrutiny by an independent authority or a knowledgeable end user. Iain Ballingall, spokesperson for the
Approved Cables Initiative commented: “This is an extremely important issue and while the dangers associated with CCA products are not life threatening, as with faulty electrical cables, they can have a disastrous affect upon a company’s reputation and livelihood... From our investigations we believe a number of resellers, including some established wholesale outlets, persist in the miss-representation and miss-selling of CCA cables into the UK structured cabling market as Cat 5e solutions. Squeezed by competitive pressures, a
6 NETCOMMS europe Volume II Issue 4 2012
number of wholesalers and distributors are demanding increasingly lower cost products from their supply chain which in turn forces further compromise in terms of product quality and ultimately the most expensive element of the cable, the copper conductor.”
C4L has announced that it is helping Natural Enterprise, a
not-for-profit organisation, provide and guarantee high-speed internet to rural areas on the Isle of Wight as part of the Yarmouth Broadband project. Beginning with the town of Yarmouth, C4L is providing Natural Enterprise with a 100MBps wireless connection between the Yarmouth Exchange and C4L’s own connection to the UK network in Bournemouth. As a result, Natural Enterprise can offer households and businesses in the Yarmouth area high-speed connections of up to 3 times more than previous speeds, allowing both home users and businesses a level of communication that was previously limited to those in certain urban areas. “Rural high-speed broadband
is essential if we’re to stop Britain from becoming a society of online haves and have-nots,” said Graham Biss, Managing Director at Natural Enterprise. “Since traditional service providers are limited to providing connectivity in urban areas that their networks can easily reach, the rest of the island’s population of 140,000 must find other means to get online. Whether through the actions of local councils or initiatives such as the Rural Communities Broadband Fund, we have to find ways to provide the connections that will stop these people being left behind. In this respect, C4L is providing an essential lifeline for us in helping to make the whole of the Isle of Wight a viable spot to live or do business online.” Natural Enterprise’s goal to bring
high-speed broadband to rural areas on the Isle of Wight has begun with the Yarmouth Broadband project. This will bring high-speed connections to 1,200 premises in the area, both commercial and residential. As a result, these premises will see their broadband speeds more than tripled from the current average of less than 2MBps. Natural
Enterprise’s aim is to use the Yarmouth Broadband project as a proving ground before pushing high-speed broadband to those of the Isle of Wight’s population who cannot benefit from high urban broadband speeds. CommScope has teamed up
with Redwood Systems to integrate building-performance lighting into its Intelligent Building Infrastructure Solution platform. As more people discover that LEDs are a more energy- efficient and longer-lasting option than standard fluorescent bulbs, their popularity continues to grow. That increased popularity is leading architects and facility managers to become more interested in deploying an intelligent building platform that includes lighting controls, in addition to monitoring and managing things such as security, heating and cooling, computer networks and telecommunications. Redwood runs its platform over a
low-voltage networking infrastructure, and deploys a fine grain sensor network that measures temperature, occupancy and light levels. This approach is believed to be unique in the lighting industry. All of the data from the Redwood network is made available to facility professionals and can be seamlessly integrated with building automation systems to positively impact areas such as heating, cooling and security. “Information technology in
buildings does not only refer to PCs and telephones,” commented Morgan Kurk, senior vice president, Enterprise Solutions, CommScope. “It also includes a building’s automation system. With lighting accounting for as much as 35 percent of the energy used in commercial buildings, stringent building codes are now requiring greater energy efficiency from lighting systems. The Redwood platform’s ability to run over structured cabling and integrate with building automation systems made them a natural fit as CommScope’s lighting provider of choice.” “Redwood’s collaboration with CommScope will help accelerate our goal of making building-performance lighting a reality for customers,” said Dave Leonard, Chief Executive Officer, Redwood Systems.
www.netcommseurope.com
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