At the March meeting of the TR41.8.1 committee of the Telecommunications Industry Association (Arlington, VA), information was presented on "environmental effects upon stranded patch cable." The test findings attempted to cast doubt on the long-term ability of all but the presenter`s brand of patch cable to retain Category 5 performance against the effects of extreme temperature and humidity.
The reaction of the committee group, consisting of more than 90 end-users, consultants and engineering representatives from major device and cable manufacturers, was that the tests lacked scientific methodology, and the results were inconclusive. No other manufacturer has corroborated the phenomenon, nor has any field evidence been presented. As a result, the TR41.8.1 committee decided not to follow up on the test results presented.
Excerpted from June 1996 BICSI News