Telecom Line Hardening: What It Means and Why It Matters

Animal and weather-related outages continue to cost the nation billions of dollars in economic losses, while putting lives and livelihoods at risk. Telecom line hardening is a proactive approach that involves strengthening telecom lines to make them more resilient when natural events that could damage them strike. There are various methods to accomplish this, including the use of physical barriers, improved cabling, or monitoring systems to protect networks from natural threats like weather and wildlife.

Material Upgrades

Material upgrades focus on hardening poles, towers, and substations by using stronger, more resilient materials like steel, concrete, and ductile iron to help them withstand extreme weather events.

Structural Reinforcement

Adding support cables in high–risk areas can improve their stability, while installing support structures could help poles and towers withstand extreme weather.

Undergrounding

Though often more expensive, burying telecom lines, where appropriate, can protect them from extreme weather events such as wind and ice damage.

Network Design Improvements

Where possible, undergrounding cables, using protective conduits, and hardened enclosures for network equipment in the field can help protect them from physical damage related to weather and animal interference.

Deploying monitoring systems in vulnerable areas can also help quickly detect physical damage due to weather and animal interference, allowing for faster response times.

Physical Barriers

Adding physical barriers, such as Critter Guard’s Line Guard and Pole Guard product systems, can prevent outages by blocking wildlife access. Critters such as squirrels have been known to interfere with utility lines and poles, leading to outages that can easily be prevented with the use of physical barriers.

Critter Guard product systems are designed to provide an extra level of protection to telecom lines. When used as a line hardening technique, products like Line Guard and Pole Guard prevent squirrels and other animals from accessing telecom lines, towers, and substations, preventing outages caused by wildlife.

Contact Critter Guard to Learn More

If you would like to learn more about our Line Guard and Pole Guard systems, and how they work to protect your power and communications equipment from animal access, contact Critter Guard today.