> True.
> In another lifetime I worked for the (then only) national Telco.
> People proposed installing remotely operated fault isolation devices
> at the boundary to customers' premises so you could test to see if the
> fault was 'in' or 'out'.
> BUT an analysis showed that the fault rate liable to be introduced by
> the isolators exceeded the gains made by locating the faults.

Ah yes,  THOSE things.  They caused our point of sale terminals to
"oscillate" when we went off-hook, due to the way we checked wether
the line was in use or not.  When I contacted the local telco about
it, I was told rather curtly that they would not interfere with any
part 68 approved device.. Well, a few million of ours were most
definitely impaired.
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