We have this wonderful invention called two-way radio. (grin) Our repeater has an autopatch, so you can hold a conversation from any landline to the mobile unit in the field or vice versa. Its been real helpful, like when aligning microwave dishes. At 18:04 6/21/02 -0400, you wrote:
We recently had a piece of equipment fail outside of Bronson, FL. This was in a regeneration hut, 50 miles from almost anywhere useful. There is no cellular service and no POTs in the HUT. The closest employee was a woman who although bright was not very familiar with the equipment installed. Because the management channel (IP) was still working to the site, an engineer here in Quincy, MA was able to step her through fixing the problem using nothing but IRC and two-way pager. It took her 35 minutes to correct the issue.
Harder than with a phone? Yes. Impossible? No. Without that IP channel running? It would have taken closer to an hour and a half by my guess but still doable. Smoke signals or semaphore? I won't hazard a guess.
-vb
Some sort of orderwire channel might be helpful in this situation as well, as long as the fiber is up, youll have a voice grade line to the NOC.