73 Alive, 27 Dead—What Does It Mean?

by:
July 17, 2025

Source: Reddit

A small plastic tag found buried in dirt reads:

100K

01–73

27 DEAD

It is a mystery to many, but for those of us who worked in telecommunications, it is a true vestige of the analog days of copper cabling.

What This Tag Represents

This is a vintage telephone cable tag, used to mark copper line splices. Bundles of copper wire—typically paired—carried telephone service before fiber optics became standard. Each pair of copper wires carried a single phone line.

A 100-pair cable could serve up to – 100 customers.

Tag Breakdown

  • 100K = 100 pair cable
  • 01-73 = pairs 1 through 73, were cut in (spliced and live);
  • 27 DEAD = 27 pairs were dead (not in use; damaged; put in reserve).

The numbers add up to 100 pairs: 73 active + 27 dead.

Typically cables are spliced in binder groups of 25 (i.e. 25, 50, 75, 100). The job for the splicer was simply to splice 73 pairs instead of 75, was either from local service needs or when checking the overall condition of the cable.

The Purpose of Tags

Splicers handwrote these tags and placed them on splice closures to track which wire pairs were live—often using a tag for a spur or small touch-up splice as a quick on-site reference.

Telephone splicing involved matching color-coded wires, following service routes, and working in all kinds of conditions. Splicers had to make each splice correctly to avoid disrupting service, so they documented everything carefully.

Source: Reddit

The Mind of the Splicer

To many telecom professionals, these tags symbolize long hours in the splice pits and vaults – a serious tool used to keep copper systems operational, while connecting communities.

The tags also documented the state of a cable at a point in time, which lines were live, which lines were reserved, and how close they were to completing the work.

Preserving an Implicit Legacy

Vintage telephone cable tags have become artifacts of a time when copper ruled over the communication network. They represent stories of our infrastructure, labor, and connection – these recollections quietly remind us of how we used to keep in touch.

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