The Picturephone System: Maintenance Plan

® Maintenance planning for Picturephone service has proceeded concurrently with the overall planning of equipment and service arrangements. Subscribers will expect Picturephone service to be of high quality and to provide nearly trouble-free operating performance. As seen in the other papers in this issue, the complex electronics used to provide Picturephone service has the potential to complicate the traditional maintenance functions of trouble detection, isolation, and repair. As in other aspects of the basic concept of Picturephone service, the maintenance will be integrated with the current maintenance and administrative operations of the telephone company, providing distinct cost advantages. 621 622 T H E BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL, FEBRUARY 1971 Maintenance and Plant Operations in the telephone operating company can be classified into three broad headings: (i) Preparing for service, (n) Providing service. (iii) Sustaining service. The first of these categories involves selection of cable pairs and verification that telephone plant is suitable to provide service ordered by a customer on an appropriate service date. Normally, a suitable pool of unassigned equipment is available to provide the service so that the need for holding a service order can be avoided. Next, the implementation of the service order requires that the selected equipment be connected and thereby dedicated to the use of a single customer in the case of individual lines or the aggregate of customers in the case of trunks and central office equipment.