Thanks for an excellent explanation Vic. An additional point to ponder.
Ameritech specifically requires a listing to UL 1459 or UL 1950 in their RFQ's. Bell Canada specifically requires a listing to CSA C22.2 M225(Canadian equivalent to UL 1459) or the CSA 950/UL1950 3rd edition in their RFQ's. It is my understanding that many of the telco service providers (RBOC's and independents) are moving towards listed products due to co-location brought on by the telecommunications ACT of 1996. Jim James Wiese Regulatory Compliance Engineer ADTRAN, Inc. 205-963-8431 205-963-8250 FAX jim.wi...@adtran.com >---------- >From: Victor L. Boersma[SMTP:vboer...@compuserve.com] >Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 1998 10:43 AM >To: INTERNET:t...@world.std.com >Subject: RE: telco spacing, listings, etc. > >Bob is correct, but only up to a point. In the US and Canada, public >utilities are >exempted from the National and Canadian Electrical Codes for equipment used >on their contiguous property. The thought behind that was that these >organizations have enough resources to do their own protection. > >Hence, UL1950/CSA950 are not mandatory for such equipment. > >However, there are in to-day's environment a lot of service providers who >are NOT >public utilities. They use the same equipment as the utilities but are not >exempt. >I suspect that some of them don't know. > >Therefore, they may seek some sort of assurance, if only for the sake of >their insurance coverage, that the equipment being used has been evaluated. > >Conformity Assessment Bodies in the USA and Canada offer programmes where >equipment can be evaluated against whatever it is that you want it >evaluated against. They have what they call "Desk Standards", documents >that were never published but that are used to evaluate products for which >there are no public standards. > >Remember, the Conformity Assessment Bodies do not claim that a product that >they evaluated is safe. Very wisely, they only state that the product has >been evaluated against certain requirements and met those requirements. >The mark you get for being evaluated against something else than a public >standard, may be a different mark than the one you get for meeting the >requirements of a public standard. The service you are being provided may >be called something different than listing or certification. I'm not sure >what they call what. > >This offers industry a degree of flexibility that is needed in certain >cases. Don't expect to be warmly received if you try and get a special >evaluation for something for which there is a public standard. They don't >just do this willy-nilly. > > >Ciao, > > >Vic >