wet locations

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 Question by LANNY HUGHES posted 03 Feb 2001
 wet locations
I am a state electrical inspector and have recently been required to inpect telecom installations. I am looking for cable sheathing ratings such as for wet locations(underslab)or direct burial.Most ratings I see talk about the spread of fire. Is the common CMP,CMG,CMR cables we see rated for damp or wet locations?
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 Answer by Roman Kitaev posted 05 Feb 2001
Hello, Lanny!

CMP, CMG etc ratings define resistance of cables to spread of fire, but *do not* define their resistance to water penetration, low or high temperature and other environmental hazards.

I think the best point of reference for you is the TIA/EIA-758 standard titled "Customer-Owned Outside Plant Telecom Cabling Standard" (April 1999).

It states the following requirements:

(1) Twisted-pair copper cabling
a) Filled OSP cables shall meet the requirements of ANSI/ICEA S-84-608
b) Air core OSP cables shall meet the requirements of ANSI/ICEA S-85-625
c) Enganced performance filled OSP cables (referred as Broadband Outside Plant - BBOSP) shall meet the requirements of ANSI/ICEA S-99-689.
d) Enganced performance air core OSP cables shall meet the requirements of ANSI/ICEA S-98-688.

Filled cables are recommended for aerial, underground and direct-buried applications.

Air core cables are suitable for aerial and underground and are not recommended for direct-buried applications.


(2) Optical fiber cables
a) OSP optical fiber cables shall meet the physical requirements of ANSI/ICEA S-83-640.

Hope it helps,
Roman Kitaev, RCDD


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