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1.4.1 SAC to House components
Figure 28: Basic Flow from SAC to house components
After you have done your work in the Central Office, and Serving Area Concept box, you would head
to the Ready Access Terminal (RAT).
The RAT is terminal that is located close to the customer premise where the Drop cable is ran into
the customer home.
In some areas, RAT refers to both Aerial outside Plant and Buried outside Plant service.
In others, RAT only refers to the Aerial outside Plant. Buried outside Plant is call Pedestals (PED) or
Encapsulated (ENC).
Terminals: Ready Access (RA)
Aerial terminals are normally either Ready Access (RA) or SLIC terminals. The Ready Access terminal is a
legacy terminal. It was the standard aerial terminal for plastic insulated cable since the late 1960s.
Figure 29: RA Terminals
The RA contains binding post blocks that allow the terminal to be expanded from the standard 6 customers
to a maximum of 24 in multiples of 6.
Hazards for the all aerial terminals include jammed lids, bee nests, cobwebs, bugs and grease from cable and
voltage.