T1 vs. POTS

[coniglio]

one of my remote offices has ONE T1 for all their in/outbound traffic. They have NO other route in the event that T1 goes down (no POTS lines, at least as far as I can tell from doing an LTM on all routes in LD 21). Would it be better to purchase another T1 as backup or just order some POTS lines? there are about 70 people there. If i go with a T1, should I order it from a different vendor? AT&T provides the one we currently have.

 

[mjpearson]

I'm new to the field and still learning.

In my business, we are NOT 100% dependent on telephone service. It's nice to have 100% up-time but we can suffer some down time. If your business is dependent on 100% up-time then, a second T-1 might be worth the additional cost. If your business is like mine, I would think that a second T-1 would be too costly as a backup for just 70 people. If your business "stops" when the phones go down then a second T-1 might be worth-while however...

I've found that the major sources of my problems has been the "local loop" not the carriers. Typically, at most sites, the T-1 and the POTS lines are contained in the same cable in the street. One dig-in or flood would wipe out all your copper so, the problem would be with the local loop and not the carrier. I mention flood but this covers a lot of ground (pun intended). We suffered problems a few local loops for about a year. The wires to our site from the CO came through a pedestal located about a block away....right next to a lawn sprinkler. Sure enough, the cabinet wasn't totally water proof and the copper would get wet. It took the phone company about a year to figure out what was going wrong. Since all the cables came through the same pedestal, a set of backup lines wouldn't have helped.


mike

 

[svhtech]

It wouldn't hurt to have a couple of POTS line in there for back-up. A lot of problems can occur in the CO with a line card going down or them making changes. With 70 people it would be nice for them to have a way to dial 911 if something does happen.

 

[coniglio]

Then what do I do? is there any way for me to tell from 3000 miles away if they already even have some POTS lines? or do I call SBC? I really don't know too much about this. And there is no local onsite person who can be of any assistance. thank you.

 

[svhtech]

Can you get the CSR or the phone bill ?

 

[coniglio]

maybe...start with that? and here is the dumbest question of the day...If their AT&T T1 handles both their local and long distance traffic, does Pacific Bell (or whoever it is in California) still have something to do with them? I never quite understood about the local telco owns the service, blah blah.

 

[freddog]

PacBell probably has no involvement at all, but you should call AT&T to find out who provides the local loop into the building. My guess is that the T-1 provider for that office is AT&T Local Services, an idependently run "cousin" of AT&T. If that is the case, then you simply have a local T-1 that runs from your PBX to AT&T Local's CO in that area. You may want to check your PIC on that T-1 to verify your long distance provider. 288 is the PIC for AT&T long distance (you'll need to contact AT&T for the PIC too).