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Figure 53: NID Completion
1.7 Drops
A drop (also known as a network service wire or NSW) can be either aerial or buried.
Aerial drops:
There are 2 main styles of aerial drop used:
The black 2 & 6 pair drop, used primarily in Alberta. These are rectangular.
The grey 4 pair drop, used primarily in BC. These are round.
Underground drops:
Underground drops are installed in 3 ways.
Directly buried from a pedestal, pull box or encapsulated splice
Placed in conduit from a pedestal or pull box
Run down a pole from an aerial terminal. This is known as a lateral
Today, developers are expected to provide a conduit, at least from the foundation level to the NIB location.
The customer must pay the cost of installing additional underground drops.
In Alberta, the drop is normally direct buried from the pedestal to the house. The technician runs the drop up
the side of the house in a conduit and attaches a NIB. In BC, usually the customer places a conduit and the
technician pulls in the drop from the pedestal (or pull box) to the NIB.
In subdivisions where pedestal terminals are not in place, the drop is spliced directly into the cable. The splice
is either permanently encapsulated or closed with a heat shrink sleeve. Splices that are designed to be
reopened are protected by service or pull boxes. The current standard underground network service wire is
Cat 5, although some 6 pair is still used in rural Alberta. In Alberta, until recently, the Cat 5 network service
wire also included a tube with 4 fiber optic fibers (called composite cable).
Closures
