> The distance is worked out by Telecom, by tracing along the wiring that
> leads back to the exchange. Normally this wiring would follow streets, so
> you could class the distance as being the distance it takes to drive from
> your house to the closest phone exchange. This will also be the exchange
> that your phone in connected to, which is not always the closest exchange.
>
> Before people say bulls**t, Telecom dont do this, I believe that they do.
I
> have been on the phone to numerous Telecom people whilst they bring out
> there maps of the area and do a trace back to the exchange.

NORMALLY the wiring would follow streets, yeah, but when you include the
comms cabinets it can be not so clear cut.

Say Joe Bloggs lives 500m away from a cabinet (due west) and 2km from the
exchange (due east). His "distance to the exchange" is more than likely
going to be 3km (500m to the cabinet, 2.5km back to the exchange). On top
of that, is the circuit from the cabinet back to the exchange fibre
(digital - thus attenuation wouldn't affect DSL signals (??)) or a pipe full
of copper pairs? How do you even know you connect to the cabinet and not
straight to the exchange?

Thus simply getting in your car, driving to the exchange and reading your
tripmeter is only going to give you a very vague approximation. Joe Bloggs
could see it as 2km but in reality it might be 3km, or 500m!

All said I don't hold a bachelor in electronic engineering and nor am I a
professional linesman so I am very carefully avoiding making embarassing
statements in a public forum :-)

Steve

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