Cabling Condominus

[grundy]

About 300 condos just went up around the corner. They are all network ready.. aka wired with Cat5e. Whats funny is on the side of the building the Cat5 for a row of condos exits the building and enters a Ameritech phone box (about 30 cables). The cable the used is just regular indoor commscope. Can you run indoor cable outside and have it stand up to the weather?

Then more Cat5e cable exits and the ends are stripped (probally for tracing/toning) and it just laying out in the open with the ends exposed. Wouldn't the rain we get here ruin the cable?

With all outdoor installations we do we use only outdoor cat5e with flood gel.

 

[AvayaNovice]

There are some indoor/outdoor rated cables, but that was more common with Cat-3 and not so much Cat-5 because it's a bit more stringent.

Sounds like a funky installation.

 

[buitenhek]

I agree with Avaya, subpar install.
PVC cable stands up a little better than Plenum in a watery environment (i.e., underground conduit usually get wet) but to have it exposed to open air (sun, weather, critters) is risky.
Secondarily running any copper between buildings is risky unless properly protected against lightning strikes, electrical ground loops and differential building ground float. Each building has it's own ground and variances in the substructure could send a ground current from a poorly installed ground cable down the line to cause problems in the other building.
As for the last question, you should use gel-filled for outdoor installations. However, keep in mind that gel cable must be terminated within 50 feet of first entering the building if not in contiguous EMT conduit.