Deadline Oct 6 200 Re: NFPA 76 Standard for the protection of telecommunications facilities

[Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com>]

I poked around the NFPA website a bit more, the deadline for
comments is October 6, 2000.

On Sat, 29 July 2000, Michael Shields wrote:
> I'm not sure why colo facilities should be held to lesser fire
> protection standards than COs.  Although the standard as written may
> have problems as a document, many data centers could certainly benefit
> from a more rigorous and professional approach to fire safety.

I not saying colo facilities should be held to a lesser fire
protection standard.  The fallacy is assuming CO's are held to
a higher standard.  They have different backgrounds and different
assumptions which resulted in a different set of decisions.  For
example, CO's are exempted from many of the requirements of the
National Electrical Code, which colo facilities are not.  These
assumptions permeate the standard, which are inappropriate to apply
to facilities built with different functional assumptions.

Why shouldn't the NEC apply to telephone CO's?  Is the fact it doesn't
mean telephone CO's are built to a lower standard than even a building
built to meet the NEC.  No.

> Precisely.  If the requirements are onerous, perhaps we are building
> COs that are expensively overprotected.

NFPA 76 may be appropriate for a telephone central office.  It is not
appropriate to extend it to cover internet and other telecommunication
facilities.