Don't think you have a problem with ring trip voltage? Before you offer a definite answer, read this short article. Don't wait until your IPTV video severely degrades - or dies - to realize that this little problem is hindering your ability to trip the video fantastic.

Even if you couldn't be there, we can't help but share just a glimpse into the custom-event our OSP™ created with Verizon this spring!

FTTH installers now must deal with tough environments such as MDUs where the bend diameters can go as low as 10 to 15 mm, and must offer bend-insensitive performance while maintaining a high degree of reliability and enable backwards compatibility. Here's where a new type of fiber can bend over backwards to meet their needs.

Home networks are a mishmash of mediums, equipment, and standards. Coaxial cable, electrical wiring, Cat 2/3/5, and wireless devices are all present. What's more, numerous associations, standards bodies, alliances, and vendors are jockeying to be the solution of choice for consumers hungry for next-generation digital services. Don't be left out of the loop – read how you can untangle your customer's digital home.

OSP EXPO™, The Broadband Deployment Market Place, delivers solutions, products, and technologies for broadband network deployment of today and tomorrow. OSP EXPO™ 2007 will bring together OSP professionals from the ILEC, CLEC, and IOC communities serving the converging telecom industry. OSP EXPO™, in its 15th year, is sponsored and managed by OSP™ Magazine.

One of my maintenance students sent me the following question on determining the presence of water in a section of Air-Core PIC cable. Here's his question. Donald, Having been around a few years and having been taught by you a couple of times, I feel a little slow asking this. Maybe I'm suffering from Old Timer's Disease. I just turned 51. I was working on a section of wet PIC cable where I suspected that there was water intrusion in the cable core. You told me to record the actual section length, and then measure the length of an open pair with an open meter. Then, if the open meter read long, subtract the actual section length and divide the difference by 1.865. This would show the amount of water in the section. I realized that I don't know where the 1.865 comes from. When I help the younger technicians out there I should probably have the answer when they ask, rather than saying "I don't know" just because I have always hated that answer myself. So, can you help me without making me feel stupid? Thanks, Kevin Pearson

Q: I think I’ve got it. There are several ways to get data from one place to another. There's the switched telephone network, using copper or fiber. There's the cable TV network, using coaxial cable. And there's wireless. Right?