In the small and medium-sized business space, getting what you want sometimes comes at a price. Here is a classic example of what you might expect to find when attempting to deliver a cost-effective solution for an SMB.
In speaking with a customer recently, I heard the story of how this business operated out of the same building for the past 24 years -- a testament to its longevity, at the least. Then I saw the network infrastructure, and that, too, stands as a testament -- in this case, to the frustrations that SMBs so often face as they're hindered by service and performance issues and unable to use technology for competitive advantage.
In working with this customer, as always, I found the site survey, or assessment, invaluable. If you want to provide an optimal communications solution, this discovery process has to kick off any project. But even with site survey information in hand, customers and providers need a solid understanding of what will or won't work -- especially if additional infrastructure investment isn't an option.
The cabling depicted in the photograph, at right, is an example of what I found installed at this customer site. The jacks in use throughout the installation are knockoffs that were sold in the late 1980s and early 1990s -- cheap imports without retainer clips (including none on the wiring terminations). When purchased, these jacks would have cost around a dollar each, considerably cheaper than the then-prevailing $5 to $6 cost of higher-quality jacks.
The LAN (RJ45) port is missing the plastic backing, and the faceplate has visible damage. In addition, the data drop is poorly terminated, with the wire a Cat5 cable of fair quality, as is discernable with color bleed on the orange conductor. As you can see, the installer did a poor job of terminating the cable as well -- he left excessive wire exposed and a dangling green pair, didn't use retainer clips, and didn't cut off the cord. These things don't matter functionally, but are a sign of sloppy work. The voice drop, too, is only of fair quality.
Not-So-Choice Choices
Upgrading the cabling infrastructure is obviously expensive, especially considering the customer's immediate need is replacement of an aged, poorly supported telephone system and old phones.
Re-terminating and replacing all the faceplates would improve the site cosmetically but would not necessarily result in the infrastructure being more manageable since the voice drops terminate on 66-blocks in a meter room and the LAN drops terminate separately in another room on a patch panel. Newer and higher-quality jacks would most likely not significantly improve data performance either, but would likely remove doubt and any possible failures due to poor quality jacks.
Because the voice cabling is only three-pair PVC, it is not ideal for IP phones. Again, the customer has a choice: Replace just some or all of the infrastructure? In this case, my suggestion is to replace the voice drops with Cat6, place the new drops in the same room with the existing LAN drops (Cat5), and then move new phones to the old Cat5 and move the LAN over to the new Cat6.
Other options include installing traditional TDM proprietary phones that use one pair for each phone. This doesn't mean that it couldn't use SIP trunks with its IP-PBX, but it does mean that it wouldn't experience the audio the same way it does with IP/SIP phones.
Still, an Adtran ActivReach managed PoE switch could provide 10/100Mbps over the pairs using a media dongle for each phone and the existing cabling kept intact. Either an IP-PBX or hosted PBX would easily fit into this solution. Now, I've told what you could do with the existing infrastructure, but haven't revealed anything else. What's your take?
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