atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services T1's, CSU's and DSU's Adtran 908E and Comcast

Well, I see that my original Post has been lost to the ether. So, here's a quick recap:

I have a Mitel in a business that had a working ISDN PRI with Verizon. It was set up as E&M Wink, both directions. The owner decided to switch to Comcast. Comcast sent, to me, their requirements so the PBX can communicate with their circuit. Comcast was providing a ISDN PRI from their "Cloud." Here is their technical response to my question: "Does your equipment support E&M signalling?" Their reply: "Comcast’s PRI does not use E&M, wink start/delay start/immediate start. Comcast uses standard ISDN PRI features only."

With a little more prodding, I found out the terminal equipment is an Adtran 908E. Since I hit a brick wall with Comcast, I decided to contact Adtran technical and find out if they, too, had no clue as to what E&M signalling is. Well, to my happy surprise, Adtran was completely familiar with E&M signalling and the tech I spoke with said they would be happy to instruct the Comcast installer on how to program the Adtran to provide E&M signalling to the Mitel. Now, understand, this was the result of about 20 emails and a few phone calls with Comcast denying ANY cooperation regarding their provided PRI and E&M. They kept missing the point that I was not asking them to change their service to accommodate the Mitel, I just wanted the "box" (in this case, the Adtran 908E) to make the physical connection with the Mitel as E&M.

Today was the cut. Here's an amazing bit of information. The Adtran 908E, Indeed, provides E&M Immediate or Wink signalling TO the PBX. Just to be Comcast, the programming ended up with the incoming signalling E&M Wink and the outgoing E&M Immediate. Really.....Their installing tech asked me to provide him with all the notes I gathered during this ordeal. He wanted them for the NEXT install.

As a Comcast "engineer" once told me: "Well, you know, we are NOT a telephone company." Well, that's EXACTLY my point.

Rcaman

RCA - No surprise to me that Adtran could save the day. Their equipment is top notch and backed with the best tech support I have ever experienced. I often have to give instructions to the cable company technicians on how things should work. They simply have no idea of the simple things like hunt groups for incoming calls, disconnect signaling, and many other small details that make or break a good installation.

Adtran has always been great. I took a bunch of their online courses way back when.

A happy ending! OMG!

How rare these days.......


Sam

A Mixed happy ending. Comcast ported 52 numbers to the one PRI. Consolidated had two T-1s installed, previously, and one was strictly POTS. So, now, everything is on the PRI and I have to build a ton of translations to make them work. Please understand that I provided Comcast with a detailed break down of all telephone numbers that went into that business. Some of those lines go to fire panels and burg panels and CAN NOT be over the PRI. Most are fax and modem lines and a few are for backup in case the PRI would go down. Having those lines on the PRI kind of defeats the purpose. Comcast is acting like it's not their fault. So, what else is new?

Rcaman

Well, not your fault. I assume that either the customer did not ask your opinion or went to Comcast anyway. Charge them for the translations and all the work and move on.

Sam

Update:

It took Comcast 21 days to install 5 of their "devices" that provide 4 POTS lines each off their coax. The installer came, hung the boxes and connected the coax and left, telling the maintenance man "It's your telephone vendor's responsibility to connect the lines. It would have been nice to know what lines were in each box, but, I guess that would mean Comcast would have to act like a "telephone crafts person" and they don't do that.

Rcaman

I just shake my head. My Temple is moving to a Comcast site. I've not seen work this bad in years.

Sam

Just ANI them yourself. I wouldn't trust them to get them right even if they did do it.

-Hal

Ready to...temporarily...come out of retirement if things go completely south?

Could you snap some pictures of the phone closet/room and post them? This sounds like a contribution for the Ugly Installation topic.

There is no phone room or closet. They ran the coax under the receptionist's desk and plugged in a few modems/"boxes" and then plugged everything into there.

I weep.

Sam

We had a very reputable BAD tech for Comcast in our area that even our competitors had to deal with. He would do just as was mentioned above about installing and leaving and not letting any documentation of IP's and/or labeling the numbers. Well he caught me in a bad mood one day when I was on my way to do a cutover with them the client called and said that they didn't have any service and the Comcast tech was there.

I arrive a few minutes later and he was there and as soon as I saw him I asked for his tech ID and he gave it to me. I grabbed my tools walked into the the comm closet and there were his two shiny new used modems (looked like they rolled around in the back of his van) and nothing was labeled. I asked him if he could label it and he said it was not his job, so I smirked walked out of the room and called Comcast and reported an outage. They said well we have a tech onsite and i said "yep and im not sure what he is doing he has been sitting here on his phone all morning, and gave them his tech ID". I then walk in and he is on the phone and said "Did you report an outage" I reply " yep" and he says "Their lines are working" and I say no there not test it yourself, your support doesn't even see the modems" He was on the phone for another hour until a regional manager showed up and was helping him and then they realized that the cable feed to the splitter feeding everything was disconnected outside in the box (I had nothing to do with !!). Manager was giving him grief asking him how the modems even came online to begin with!! They get everything back up and working and manager comes and tell us they are good to go I walk back and nothing is still labeled, me "are you going to label the 9 telephone numbers?" Tech just glared at me and then they labeled everything. And on his way out the door with his manager standing beside him I say, "now let this be a lesson to always label your lines and give the customer proper documentation of the service you are installing, because if you want to make my job a pain in the ass I will make yours even more"

Fast forward a day and I get a call from a sales rep that we deal with there and he was dying laughing because that regional manager that was out onsite was telling him this story about this tech that caused a big issue because nothing was labeled and he said "I bet I know who this was"

Yes, of course, I did ANI all the lines, but that's not the point. I have NEVER had a situation with Bell Telephone, Bell Atlantic, Verizon, Winstream, Armstrong, AT&T, US LEC or Consolidated where their equipment was installed and the circuits were not labeled. Sure, some of the labeling leaves a lot to be desired, but, still, the techs make an effort to identify the circuits.

This particular situation was frustrating. The devices they installed were behind a data rack which was all of 10" away from the wall. There is, virtually, no light in the room and they installed their devices 6" above the floor. I'm 6'4" and bending over is an Olympic sport for me, anymore. With no circuit ID, I had to ANI all of the installed lines, run a jumper and then connect. That took a while.

Any more, when a client says Comcast, I roll my eyes and say "Be prepared for a bumpy ride." They don't understand, at first, but, everyone, no exceptions, fully realize exactly what I mean.

Rcaman

That's why I always try to be there (on the customer's dime) when the cable tech arrives. More than once I took the modems from him and told him I would install them while he ran the coax. But I understand that it doesn't always work out that way.

-Hal

LOL...That happened to me on Monday. The tech had two MTAs to install and he had to run a new drop from the pole. When I offered to install the MTA's for him, I thought he was going to ask me for a date. He was comfortable with the coax end of things, but was shaking in his boots when it came time to work with the MTAs. I told him he had to call his office to have the MTAs activated and get the numbers ported. "Oh, is that why they said to call when I got the coax connected?" I said "Well...yeah. The MTAs don't come activated." His initial idea was to mount the MTA's 250' on the other end of the building. I walked him over to the corner of the building and showed him his pole span amplifier and multiple splitters. That was all of 10' away from the building and 3' inside where the telephone system was. Of course, he had to call and get someone's permission. According to the tech, they "forgot" that big amp was in the span.

"Forgot?" Really? How does a company "forget" about a piece of equipment about the size of a VW on the span? I guess that could be a possible reason they are clueless when it comes to properly connecting equipment and porting telephone lines.

Rcaman