atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services T1's, CSU's and DSU's PRI T1 Caller ID Question

Yevette,
May I assume that both businesses share the PBX and therefore the PRI?

Yep, that's correct. We have 200 DIDs that are split between the two businesses.

The call screening feature enabled by the service provider will permit them to read the CID data being sent by your system. If they don't have this enabled, then the data sent by your system is discarded and only the BTN (Billing Telephone Number) is referenced. This should be an easy fix by the service provider. I haven't encountered any of them who charge anything extra for this feature.

Yevette,
The PRI basically has two parts to it. The T1 which is a "pipe" connecting the PBX to the Central Office Switch and the PRI or Primary Rate Interface with a defined set of functions and protocols that define how the two switches "communicate" and what features under mutal agreement(tariffed rates) will be active, ie. multiple CID. What I think your phone company is saying and not too clearly, is that your Primary Rate Interface needs to be upgraded to one that allows mulitple caller ID's. This is done in the PBX and or the CO switch. A new PRI T1 is usually built to allow for testing between the two switches before cutover.

That's it in a nutshell Ed. Came across this a lot of times.

John, I think that helps me understand a bit better. The PBX is managed by us (not me, a co-worker) and he says it is sending out what it should be. I'm not sure I understand your last sentence though. Does that mean something on their end needs to changed to make that work?

Ed's comment just before your's is exactly what one person at the phone company told me, then someone else stepped in and said "no, no, they need upgrade their PRI." Actually at first they said we needed to GET a PRI - then they had a salesman call to sell me one, and the sales person said "wait a minute, you already have one, and it's showing on your bill". Then we went back to tech support at the phone company and they said well yes you have one but it's a first generation one.

We have pretty much decided to shop around at this point. They have been sending us in circles for weeks, and it's getting really old. (Plus to get the PRI "upgraded" they want to lock us into a new 3 year contract).

I thank you all for taking the time to help me on this.

Yevette,
Sorry for my last sentence about "cut". The phone company usually builds a new PRI-T1 between the CO and your PBX, in this case with all the new features you require programmed into the Interface (software) part of the overall circuit. The phone company outside technicians will test the new PRI-T1 physical layer for problems between the CO and your building to insure that it meets requirements, B8ZS/AMI, Superframe/ESF, QRSS etc. Once the tests are completed satisfactorily it is turned over to the phone company CO technician and your technician and they tests all the new protocols/feature packages or options that you have contracted for with the new PRI. After all tests are completed the phone company technician and your technician physically and or logically move the existing equipment off the old PRI-T1 and on to the new one. This called performing a cut or cutover. Then they usually test the contracted features again to unsure it is working with your customers connected to see how it works under normal services conditions.

Yevette,

I agree with the other posts. In todays world you have leverage. If one company doesn't meet your needs shop around.

Thanks,

JO

most likely a little to late for this but the most common issue I see with cpn screening is that the cpe must be configured to send not only the originating number in a 10 digit format but also needs to send a type of number as "national" and a numbering plan of ISDN Telephony. If any of the 3 are off it will fail to the deafult number in the lecs switch.