Telephone & Communications Systems Columbia Corrosion Control’s (CCC) parent company, PrivaCom Ventures, Inc., has owned and operated multiple telephone and communications companies in the past. Therefore, CCC has gained vast knowledge about corrosion in communications networks. The telephone and communications industry is certainly not immune to corrosion problems. They can exist everywhere such as: direct corrosion of old paper and lead copper conductor positive pressure systems; destruction of equipment in submerged manholes; damage from stray power utility currents; chemical damage from leaking oil lines, storage tanks, gas lines and etc.; damaged pad mounted outdoor equipment & paint failures, pedestal equipment failure, street handhole lid or side failures, failed underground splices due to moisture penetration, cable jacket failures from abrasion or general soil attack, failed coaxial cables, failed aerial hardware mounted on poles, corroded anchor rods, and down guys; lost fiber optic cables due to water intrusion; lost microwave or cellular tower mounted equipment and poles; lost direct embedded steel poles or towers due to ground line coating failures. Do any of these problems sound familiar? If they do and you want them solved, call CCC. Photo at left: CCC Engineers inspect damage to Fiber Optic Cables in a Handhole in Oklahoma. A serious danger in the communications business is electric shock. Many telephone, cable TV, and general communication lines are grounded to the same grounds as the electric utility. This practice can lead to electrocution even death to the utility employees or customers. CCC is an expert on identifying the causes and remedies to this danger. For example: when a telecommunications utility grounds between two power utility underground pad mounted transformers, it is now acting as a parallel power utility cable ground. Many power utilities use a 1/3rd current ground return path copper concentric neutral underground cable system. This means that only 1/3rd of the ground or fault currents return to the power utility on its own grounding system. The remaining 2/3rd fault currents return through the least resistance ground path. That least resistance ground path is most often the parallel telecommunications grounded cable. Underground power utilities also suffer from a great deal of concentric neutral corrosion. This means that when the power utility concentric neutral fails, then the parallel grounded telecommunications system can become the only ground path for thousands of volts and amps. Lethal dangers are an everyday occurrence for telecom repair crews who are not normally expected to deal with or even be able to identify the dangers that exist when they or a customer touches their equipment or cables. Hundreds of customers have died over the years when they were electrocuted while on the telephone or touching a water pipe during fault conditions. Many of these accidents were directly attributable to parallel grounding of the telecom system to the power utility ground then to the customers electric ground rod or water metal piping system. CCC can help you identify these dangerous situations, and help train your employees on how to protect themselves, company facilities & equipment from damage. CCC can also identify other methods of grounding that are safer and cheaper than parallel power utility grounding practices

Telephone & Communications Systems

Columbia Corrosion Control’s (CCC) parent company, PrivaCom Ventures, Inc., has owned and operated multiple telephone and communications companies in the past. Therefore, CCC has gained vast knowledge about corrosion in communications networks.

The telephone and communications industry is certainly not immune to corrosion problems. They can exist everywhere such as: direct corrosion of old paper and lead copper conductor positive pressure systems; destruction of equipment in submerged manholes; damage from stray power utility currents; chemical damage from leaking oil lines, storage tanks, gas lines and etc.; damaged pad mounted outdoor equipment & paint failures, pedestal equipment failure, street handhole lid or side failures, failed underground splices due to moisture penetration, cable jacket failures from abrasion or general soil attack, failed coaxial cables, failed aerial hardware mounted on poles, corroded anchor rods, and down guys; lost fiber optic cables due to water intrusion; lost microwave or cellular tower mounted equipment and poles; lost direct embedded steel poles or towers due to ground line coating failures. Do any of these problems sound familiar? If they do and you want them solved, call CCC.

Photo at left: CCC Engineers inspect damage to Fiber Optic Cables in a Handhole in Oklahoma.

A serious danger in the communications business is electric shock. Many telephone, cable TV, and general communication lines are grounded to the same grounds as the electric utility. This practice can lead to electrocution even death to the utility employees or customers. CCC is an expert on identifying the causes and remedies to this danger. For example: when a telecommunications utility grounds between two power utility underground pad mounted transformers, it is now acting as a parallel power utility cable ground. Many power utilities use a 1/3rd current ground return path copper concentric neutral underground cable system. This means that only 1/3rd of the ground or fault currents return to the power utility on its own grounding system. The remaining 2/3rd fault currents return through the least resistance ground path. That least resistance ground path is most often the parallel telecommunications grounded cable.

Underground power utilities also suffer from a great deal of concentric neutral corrosion. This means that when the power utility concentric neutral fails, then the parallel grounded telecommunications system can become the only ground path for thousands of volts and amps. Lethal dangers are an everyday occurrence for telecom repair crews who are not normally expected to deal with or even be able to identify the dangers that exist when they or a customer touches their equipment or cables.

Hundreds of customers have died over the years when they were electrocuted while on the telephone or touching a water pipe during fault conditions. Many of these accidents were directly attributable to parallel grounding of the telecom system to the power utility ground then to the customers electric ground rod or water metal piping system.

CCC can help you identify these dangerous situations, and help train your employees on how to protect themselves, company facilities & equipment from damage. CCC can also identify other methods of grounding that are safer and cheaper than parallel power utility grounding practices