sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Telecom Service & Providers Optimum service questions

My government customer (about whom you have heard me speak) is now so fed up with VZ that they have asked me to open casual negotiations with Optimum Voice regarding switching over 30 or so lines, working in a half-dozen buildings, to OV.

This was precipitated, most recently, by VZ's having taken 104 hours, the first time, and, a week later, 87 hours, the second time, to repair a SLC-96 problem at the Police Department. You can't blame them for being a tad upset.

Anyway, the low-level flunky from OV who returned my request for information could not answer my basic questions about what OV can and cannot provide.

I need 30 or more Centrex lines. Period.

His answer: "Centrex is just a telephone company policy that concerns how local, regional, and long distance calls are charged. It has nothing to do with the basic telephone service."

I explained about basic Centrex features, such as the escape digit 9, for dialing outside numbers, and explained that offices at the town government could reach others by simply dialling 4 digits.

He then says "Oh, that's called 'D.I.D.' which is not something we offer yet." Any attempts to dissuade him of his mis-apprehension were futile.

So, can anyone here tell me if OV offers Centrex-like service? Thanks.

Arthur, ALL service providers have this capability, as ALL CO switches can be programmed to provide Centrex service. Your first obstacle is to eliminate Verizon from the loop, since the outage you encountered would have affected your town's service, regardless of the service provider.

Does the local CATV service provider offer local telephone service? If they do, I'd look in their direction, as their networks are 100% independent of Verizon's "last mile" issues (failed SLIC).

I have around 30 sites in central NJ with my PBX's running on OV lines. To my latest understanding they can offer upto 12 OV lines per account, ie 3 modems with 4 RJ11's per Modem, If you need more than 12 OV lines per physical site, I think you have to open another account and add more modems.
I have had little to no troubles using OV lines, you can configure Hunt sequence etc via a web browser, try doing that with VZ....

Ed, sorry if I wasn't clear: Optimum Voice is an offering of our local CATV provider, Cablevision.

They are the company to whom I turned, and they are the company who gave me the lame answers.

I will try to find an engineering-type person at OV and see if I can teach him/her the basics so that a conversation can take place.

Why does it seem that before we can get questions answered by the experts, that we have to educate them in their own field, first?

Arthur -

Good luck with Cablevison (pause here while I turn to spit, to clear my mouth of the foul taste garnered by the mention of their name).

I've dealt with them here in the City and my experience was bad enough that I dropped Cable Service and went to Satellite.

Sam

Arthur, as bad as Verizon might be, Cablevision OV (or any cable company provided voice service) is several magnitudes of order worse. About all they are somewhat capable of providing is telephone service to Mrs. Smith with her one line and cordless phones. Cable companies like to claim that they offer business class voice service but from their features to their CSRs to their equipment, materials and techs there is no friggin' way in hell.

You might want to look for my post in Installer's titled "I just ripped Cablevision a new..." And that one isn't over yet.

Red flags should have gone up after your experience with that CSR. These are wannabe phone people. It wouldn't have made any difference if you went all the way to the top, they have no idea what you are talking about. My advice is to stay far away.

And by the way, I don't like being able to configure the service on line. That's what a CSR is for. Most people are going to have to call and get an explanation anyway.

"Optimum Voice, how may I help you?" I can't seem to be able to configure the hunting. "We don't offer hunting, sir." Ah well yes you do. It's like when one line is busy and the next call to that number comes in on the next line. "We can do that?" Hmm, Ok I'm online and I see it says rollover. "Yes, I can help you with your rollover, would you like call waiting on those lines too?".


-Hal

Actually it's pretty sad about the lack of training and experience in telecom cable techs have. I'm a member over on the Cable Techs board and there is a forum for voice (CDV). At the top there is a stickie about compatible and non-compatible key systems. There are only three that they claim will work with their Arris EMTAs:

* Norstar Plus

* Partner ACS

* Merlin Plus

There is a whole list of (literally) junk consumer equipment that they call "non-compatible key systems" and our Jeff set them straight on the fact that none of the list is key equipment.

-Hal

Wow, that is surprising that Cablevision is so bad. Cox in our area is very good, in fact they deliver T1 and PRI circuits left and right and pay mighty hefty commissions for the referral. They have their own DMS500 and know how to use it. I guess we are lucky. Many of their people came from other CLECs, so I've gotten to know them over the years. There are a lot of sharp knives in Cox's drawer in these parts.

Sadly, they only service Fairfax County, VA and that only comprises about 1/8th of my service territory. I wish they had more of a point of presence, but here the cable franchises are on a county-by-county basis.

Cablevision does own Lightpath which serves office and industrial parks with fiber. Lightpath is a completely different system and ballgame, been around for many years and is nothing like CATV. They only provide voice and data. I suspect what Cox is doing is similar.

Data gurus can correct me if I say that I doubt T1 and PRI can co-exist with the broadband service on the same system.

-Hal

Well, a PRI is transported over a T1 "pipe" emulation, so they can coexist on the same network. A T1 is 24 channels capable of carrying 64K each.

It is pretty much a matter of whether the signaling is attached to each channel (56K + 8K for signaling, A.K.A 'T1') or combined into one single data channel (PRI) where the first 23 channels are clear for 64K and the last one handles all of the signaling.

Regardless of how the service is delivered, the T1 circuit can only deliver 1.544 MBps. Being a 40+ year-old standard, any CATV service provider that isn't capable of providing these services won't be able to compete in today's markets.