TIA Blog

TIA’s “Bonding and Grounding (Earthing) Standard for Customer Premises” (TIA-607) was recently accepted as an international practice for telecommunications bonding infrastructure. This is a major win for TIA members and U.S. ICT companies operating around the globe. As innovations for smart homes and buildings continue to evolve, TIA-607 will be vital to ensuring communications systems are properly installed and protected from power surges that could disrupt in-building communications networks.

First developed in 1994, TIA-607 has consistently evolved to meet the needs of the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. Today, the standard is being used in the construction of smart homes and business, and to enable Power over Ethernet on customer premises. The standard is also is a critical element for system noise reduction in large data centers.

TIA-607, developed and maintained by TIA’s Telecommunications Cabling Systems Engineering Subcommittee (TR-42.16) is widely used in the United States. After a solid campaign by TIA members to the joint technical committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the standard will now be published as the global standard within ISO/IEC 30129 Telecommunications Bonding Networks.

Originally, the project for this international proposal contained only European bonding practice. During meetings to improve and formulate the international standard, the U.S. delegation, operated by TIA, stated that they would only support a standard that included the U.S. methodology of bonding as documented in TIA-607.

By holding bilateral talks, the U.S. and E.U delegations were able to come to an agreement that addresses both needs. The global standard now leaves the selection of the methodology (green wire or dedicated bonding infrastructure) up to the customer and designer in each country.

For more information on TIA’s standard development work, contact standards@tiaonline.org.