atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Executone-Isoetec Telephones & Systems AMI or B8ZS & Super Frame or Extended SF

When I suggested you need an onsite vendor this frustration is what I was thinking about. Carrier sales people will tell you one thing to sell the service and leave you hanging when their tech shows up and has problems. This might not happen but to many times I ve seen the trouble come up and the Carrier's tech wants to blame your equipment and run. Not all techs are like this but there are enough out there to be a pain. Having you own vendor there to defend your equipment is always a good idea. Hope that your cutover does go over well for you.

Kerry

Kerry,

You are absolutely right!! I am so disappointed in the original BS sales rep who was so "aggressive" about selling their service to us. She claimed "there will be nothing to it"!!! Just flip a switch and all will be taken care of. Since then, she has been transferred into another position and really doesn't even care what's going on as far as the switch over. Before we agreed to their business, she would call me ALL the time, assuring me everything will be WONDERFUL. Now that we've signed a contract, I can't even get her to answer a phone call until I've called three times and begin to get just a little indignant about her not returning my calls ;>).

I do believe, before this is over, I am going to tell her that she, nor any other sales rep, should say there is not going to be any involvement on the customer's side, because that is indeed JUST NOT TRUE!!

Thanks, Kerry. I appreciate your comments.

A sales rep still should know by your records and if they don't they should know who to call. Now to try and answer your question. When you had AT&T service you had a t1 to the AT&T switch that switch requires certain line coding and framing format, depending on what you are using it for. Across the carrier it's always ESF it's converted on both ends (switch and to the local company) Bell South, if everything is done right is transparant so they don't care what the framing is they just pass on what they get, so they wouldn't know. Now things have changed, the local companys can now provide Services before they couldn't so now they need the information. Not knowing your CSU I can't be specific to it, but most CSU's have either an option switch or soft pad display where you can set the line code and framing, but there are a ton of different ones and I'm sure there are some that you buy that are hard set and can't be changed. Hope I haven't rambled too much and shed some light on it.
Bill

Bill,

We STILL have AT&T at this writing. Our contract ran out with them last October and our rates went sky-high at that time - tripling in costs. I contacted AT&T to renew the contract (it was very difficult to find a "rep" for us as AT&T has downsized. I was able to contact my previous AT&T rep, who is in a totally different field now, but he told me he would try to find a rep. Finally, someone did call me and I asked them to propose a new contract. I did the same with Bell South. AT&T never got back with me and BS was so aggressive, promising a care-free switchover and great rates. We signed a contract with Bell South.

We are STILL waiting for them (BS)to do whatever it is they need to do to get us switched over (and it hasn't been "care-free" as they said it would be. They are asking numberous questions now, one of which was the AMI question. They also wanted to know all the telephone numbers our company has. That's funny, because they send us a bill every month which lists all our phone numbers. Now they want our vendor to be present during switchover (at a cost of $100/hour - which when doing their proposal to us, they did not mention that we would have to do this - she said NOTHING would be required on our part). HA!!!!

Our CSU is a ACD Kentrox Serv II. Our T1 is a 24 channel and all channels are set for voice. Does this tell you anything? Do you think I need a vendor on site? If BS does everything correctly, when we do the physical switch in the equipment room, everything should work correctly, right? And, if for some reason it doesn't, can't BS physically switch it back to the old connection until they correct their error? My previous vendor keeps telling me that it is not necessary for a vendor to be there because all that is needed is switching from one box to another. Does this make sense to you?

Thanks for replying once again.

Doesn't surprise me about AT&T, they are getting out of the residential and small business world, they just want big customers, too bad used to be a good company.
As far as your vendor goes (gotta raise my rates $100 and hour?) If BS matches your signaling it shouldn't be necessary, just a matter of swinging your service from the AT&T switch to the Bell switch. Having said that if they want your vendor on site it tells me they aren't real sure about what they are doing. We used to switch service all the time, all you needed is what the customer switch needs for signaling and of course the framing and line coding. There are exceptions to every rule, but most pure voice T-1's are D4/AMI, I think by other post you have determined that.
Bill

Bill,

The story goes on and on. BS (a new contact) called this AM - they want to know our 800 numbers and the line #'s they come in on. I have already provided the Sales Rep with all this. Needless to say, it took TIME to do that - I told the new contact to get that info from the the Sales Rep. Now we will see what the next call will be bringing. So much for care-free switching. ;>)

Our phone vendor's rates are 3 hour minimum @ $100 an hour. That's during regular working hours. Guess when we will have to make the switch-over!!!??? I'm afraid to ask what those rates would be. That's why I'm so diligent about ascertaining whether having a vendor on site is a must. We are a "struggling" company and try to eliminate unnecessary costs in any way we can.

Thanks, Bill - thanks to everyone who responded. Your replies are greatly appreciated and have been very helpful.

I wish you were closer to me. Those rates would be easy to beat.

In that case, I wish you were too!!!!

Might be able to afford YOU.

I'mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Back!!!!

YIKES!!! We tried the switch-over on Friday, the 7th. Bell South said they were getting signalling indicating an Extended Super Frame versus just a Super Frame. I called my Vendor friend - he adamantly said that our T1 was a DM4 - Super Frame (dont' quote me on the exactness of the DM4- my paperwork is at the office. I am at home right now, very frustrated that the switch-over did not go well.

What it amounted to was the Vendor, via telephone saying one thing and Bell South saying another. Vendor said that our T1 was DM4 - AMI Super Frame and it could not be configured (no way to change it) - that if AT&T Long Distance was working with it, there should be no reason why Bell South, if they had their pre-coding, etc. done correctly, should not work too. So, now we are in a P'ing match between Bell South and the Vendor.

How can I determine who is right? One of the IT people at work said we should call AT&T on Monday and ask them what their interface with us was - Extended Frame or Super Extended Frame. I'm not sure AT&T will be able to tell me that, though.

Can anyone shed any light?

Thanks in advance. . . .

As Said by JJ... That is what it is.(period)That is the ONLY way it could have been in an IDS.