Demarcation point

Old and new style demarcation points in a home built in 1945. A splitter for a DSL modem has been plugged into the modern demarc (on the right). One line passes through a DSL filter before going to the old demarc, and from there to the remainder of the house.

In telephony, the demarcation point is the point at which the telephone company network ends and connects with the wiring at the customer premises. A demarcation point is also referred to as the demarc, DMARC, MPOE (minimum point of entry or main point of entry).

The demarcation point varies between countries and has changed over time.

History

Prior to the Bell System divestiture on January 1, 1984, American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) through its Bell System companies held a natural monopoly for telephone service within the United States. AT&T owned the local loop, including the telephone wiring within the customer premises and the customer telephone equipment. A similar arrangement existed with smaller, regional telephone companies such as GTE. As a result of deregulation of the telephone system, unbundling of the local loop, and lawsuits by companies wishing to sell third-party equipment to connect to the telephone network, there was a need to delineate the portion of the network which was owned by the customer and the portion owned by the telephone company or the common carrier. Where the portions meet is called the demarcation point.

Equipment

Canada

20th century Bell Canada demarcation point for a single phone line. The spark-gap surge protectors on the left have hex heads for easy removal. Near center, a post is connected to the house's electrical ground. The other two connection points are for tip and ring. A test jack can be attached nearby so the home-owner or tenant can verify whether the inside wiring is at fault. Modern Bell Canada demarcation points are Network interface devices

The demarcation point varies from building type and service level. In its simplest form, the demarcation point is a junction block where telephone extensions join to connect to the network. This junction block usually includes a lightning arrestor (which requires a wire to earth ground.) In multi-line installations such as businesses or apartment buildings, the demarcation point may be a punch-down block. In most places this hardware existed before deregulation.

United States

Two network interface devices.

In the United States, the modern demarcation point is a device defined by FCC rules (47 C.F.R. Part 68) ^[1] to allow safe connection of third-party telephone Customer-premises equipment and wiring to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

The modern demarcation point is the network interface device (NID). The NID is the telco's property. The NID may be outdoors (typically, mounted on the building exterior in a weatherproof box) or indoors.

The NID is usually placed for easy access by a technician. It also contains a lightning arrestor, fuse and test circuitry which allows the carrier to remotely test whether a wiring fault lies in the customer premises or in the carrier wiring, without requiring a technician at the premises. The demarcation point has a user accessible RJ-11 jack (a "test jack" or "demarcation jack"), which is connected directly to the telephone network, and a small loop of telephone cord connecting to the jack by a modular connector. When the loop is disconnected, the on-premises wiring is isolated from the telephone network and the customer may directly connect a telephone to the network via the jack to assist in determining the location of a wiring fault. In most cases, everything from the central office to and including the demarcation point is owned by the carrier and everything past it is owned by the property owner.

As the local loop becomes upgraded, with fiber optic and coaxial cable technologies sometimes replacing the original unshielded twisted pair to the premises, the demarcation point has grown to incorporate the equipment necessary to interface the original premises POTS wiring and equipment to the new communication channel.

Demarcation points on houses created prior to the Bell System divestiture usually do not contain a test jack. They only contained a spark-gap surge protector, a grounding post and mount point to connect a single telephone line. The second wire pair were usually left unconnected and were kept as a spare pair in case the first pair were damaged.

United Kingdom

A British Telecom NTE5 linebox, showing the removable front plate and test jack.

In the United Kingdom, the demarcation point occurs within a jack (the master socket), whose wiring is partly owned by the customer, partly owned by the phone company. Other jacks are the customer's property. Newer NTE5 jacks have a removable front panel: the front panel and its wiring is the customer's, while the rear wiring is BT's. The removable panel allows separation of these two parts and independent maintenance, and access to a test jack to determine whether line faults are in the customer's wiring or BT's.

References

See also