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Zapped! - Trends

Communications News, Feb, 2002 by Ken Anderberg, Carren Bersch, Sean Kelly, Ray Peckham

Nelson Publishing, owner of Communications News, recently found out the hard way about the importance of providing lightning protection for enterprise PBX systems. During one stormy weekend, newly installed copper telephone wiring between the Nokomis, FL-based company's main building and a nearby office was struck by lightning--causing more than $10,000 damage and knocking out the voice mail system for most of the following week.

Not until the following Monday was the damage to the phone system--a digital hybrid PBX KEY system that includes a Vovadi 4896--discovered. CFO Jim Russell says the company was assured by a subcontractor that the copper lines had lightning protection. "The subcontractor dug a ditch (between the buildings) and ran PVC pipe for the copper," he explains. "We didn't find out until it was too late, however, that the protection wasn't put on."

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The lightning surge traveled up to the individual circuit KEY system lines. "Fourteen circuit boards--including one that interfaced with the voice mail system--were blown," Russell says. "Nine phones, the power supply for the system and the DSS (direct station select) all got zapped." Six KEY cards were damaged, some completely.

The telephone system sustained $10,000 damage to the switch, and "minimal" $2,000 to the company's computers from a surge through the power lines. The company had a spare CPU board, and the phones--without voice mail service--were back online within a few hours.

Russell had a local interconnect company retrofit new lightning protection onto Nelson's phone system. The protection, consisting of gas circuit breakers, costs a few hundred dollars--a small price to pay for preventing thousands of dollars in communications-equipment damage and possible lost business.

Technology Industry

Zapped! - Trends

Communications News, Feb, 2002 by Ken Anderberg, Carren Bersch, Sean Kelly, Ray Peckham

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