Subscriber Loop Plant of Rural Telephone Systems

The subscriber loop plant of rural telephone systems is described on the basis of a nationwide sampling survey of the subscriber circuits of the REA telephone borrowers. The sample consists of 1000 main telephones drawn randomly from a universe of 1 375 000 main telephones under a statistical sampling plan. The survey provided a complete description of the plant serving each of the sampled telephones. By computer analysis of the data, patterns of plant composition, average costs, and distribution of subscribers in terms of distance from the serving central office are developed. The construction cost advantage of buried plant is stressed by showing how greatly pole lines (poles, crossarms, guys, etc.) contribute to the cost of serving rural subscribers by means of aerial plant. Guidelines are given for a plant improvement program to correct deviations from current standard design revealed by the survey data. The importance of the data for use in evaluating techniques for upgrading and establishing cost parameters for proposed subscriber carrier systems is indicated.