| Tests run by Greenwoods and its partner company
Interface Components have found that many imported type 43 connectors
are of poor-quality, have inadequate insulation and poor quality (soft
jewellery grade) gold plating resulting in a short service life.
Gary Elmes, Technical Manager at Interface Components, explained
that problems could become more widespread because of the way NGNs
function: “NGNs tend to have far fewer interconnection points
because more of the switching is done by computers. So a connector
failure has the potential to cause far wider disruption to services
than in other networks.”
Millions of Type 43 coaxial connectors are installed in telecoms
networks throughout Europe and beyond, and over the past two to
three years there has been a steady growth of low-quality foreign
imports into the UK. The influx of sub-standard Type 43 connectors
is a result of tight profit margins and telcos looking to cost savings
as a way of hitting their profit targets.
However, this may have the opposite effect and create additional
costs. In a typical exchange, if only one Type 43 connector fails,
between 30 and 1800 voice calls could be lost. As more users look
to download digital content to PCs or television set-top boxes,
or watch live TV on their mobiles, such disruption could have a
negative effect on users’ experience, making them reluctant
to use such services regularly.
This could have severe impact on service contracts between telcos
and content providers, resulting in service failure penalties and
long term damage to reputation.
The manufacture of poor-quality connectors has been influenced
by the high price of gold, some manufacturers are now plating the
connectors with a very thin layer of low grade (soft) gold. This
has meant that these products do not meet the accepted standard
used by carriers such as BT.
It is hard to spot poor quality imports, as some even look better
than their approved counterparts, because bright decorative grade
gold coatings have been used. Tests carried out by Twickenham Plating
Group have found gold coating thicknesses for some connectors are
only 8% of what is required, making them inadequate for Telco applications.
Greenwoods urge operators not to sacrifice quality for cost-savings
and to take a greater interest in the components sub-contractors
use; as the potential costs incurred as a result of component failure
far outweigh money saved buying components that are not industry
standard. |
