Telecom For Dummies

A customer-provided loop identifies a dedicated circuit where you order the local loop instead of having the carrier do it. You might have found a better rate for the local loop through your sales rep, or you may simply want more control over the order and the troubleshooting process. As you fill out the order form for your carrier, you need to note the section devoted to the local loop because it has about four questions that you need to answer. Your carrier needs to know the following:

• The name of the local carrier you are using: The local carrier you choose might not have an existing relationship with your long-distance carrier at the POP specified. Every long-distance carrier has only a limited number of cables allocated for connections with each local carrier. Your long-distance carrier could be out of available cable pairs for your proposed local carrier. You need to wait for new cables to be installed or choose another local carrier to connect into your long-distance provider.

   Warning!  Your long-distance carrier might not be able to use the local carrier you have chosen. If you aren’t using a Baby Bell company or a standard local carrier, your long-distance carrier might not have any contracts, arrangements, or facilities allocated for the company you want to use. Before you set your heart on using a local carrier to make the connection into the long-distance network, confirm that your long-distance carrier can use this company.

• Contact person at the local carrier: Someone at your long-distance provider may want to chat with someone at the local carrier you chose to work out the finer details of the circuit. Long-distance networks generally make you do all the coordination, because, after all, this is a customer-provided loop.

• Contact phone number for your local carrier: If your long-distance carrier is going to contact your local carrier for any reason, it needs a phone number. Don’t expect the carrier to use it and cut you out of the process (see “Ordering a local loop makes you responsible for it,” later in this chapter). The long-distance carrier probably wants the number on file if there is ever any trouble on the circuit.

• POP address or CLLI code: This is very important information. Carriers have POPs throughout the U.S., and some urban areas have multiple POPs. If you’re looking for a Qwest POP in Atlanta, Georgia, for example, there are at least two locations you can use.

   Remember  When you list the physical location where your office is located, your carrier provisions the loop out of the POP closest to that premises. If two POPs are of equal distance from your office, you have a 50-50 chance that each carrier will choose a different location. The next thing you know, your long-distance carrier has built a nice new circuit from the Atlanta 2 switch and patched it into its network; meanwhile, your local carrier has installed a nifty circuit to the Atlanta 1 switch. The disjuncture can eventually be corrected, but you will have lost several weeks of provisioning time.

 Tip  Request a POP list from your long-distance carrier before you order, or ask for a price quote for your local loop. The document lists every POP your carrier has, along with its physical location and the industry CLLI code. The CLLI code is telecom shorthand for the physical location of the POP — every carrier can identify the POP by this code. Along with the address and CLLI code, the list should also have a phone number for each POP that your local carrier can use to determine the cost of the loop.

Ordering a local loop makes you responsible for it

Only the company that is the end user of record is authorized to initiate trouble reports on a dedicated circuit. If you order a local loop, your long-distance carrier can’t (legally) initiate trouble reports with your local carrier for your circuit, or speak to your local carrier directly about the specifics of your circuit. For this reason, you should order the local loop only if it makes a large financial difference, or you are technically savvy.

 Remember  At the end of a frustrating day, a carrier may abuse the fact that it isn’t the end user of record to pawn off a problem to you. This can devolve into childish finger-pointing as each carrier maintains that a problem is someone else’s responsibility to fix. For this reason, it’s easier to pay a little more money and have your long-distance carrier order the local loop. Then if there is ever a problem on the circuit, it doesn’t matter where the problem is located; your long-distance carrier still has to fix it because it is the end user of record.

If you’re still reading this section, then you haven’t taken my advice and are ordering your own local loop. That’s fine, too. After you have filled out and submitted the order forms for your long-distance and your local carriers, you have to let them do their work. Give them both about three days before you follow up and ask for order numbers. As long as they each have order numbers for your job, everything should be flowing fine.

Understanding the CFA

About 15 to 25 days after you place an order for a local loop, you should receive the Carrier Facilities Assignment, (CFA) document from your long-distance carrier. This document identifies the exact piece of hardware to which your local carrier is to deliver your circuit.

The document your long-distance carrier sends you should actually be an LOA CFA (Letter of Authorization Carrier Facilities Assignment). This document doesn’t just tell you the specific piece of hardware to which your local carrier is going to connect, but also authorizes your local carrier to enter the POP to leave cables for your long-distance carrier to complete the final connection into their hardware. The CFA lists the following information:

• The local carrier to which it has assigned the CFA: Look at this section closely. If your long-distance carrier has the CFA directed to ICG Communications and you are using Verizon, you might need to go back and ask for a new CFA.

• The physical location of the POP, or the POP CLLI: This address or CLLI code should match the address you sent to your local carrier when you ordered the loop. If the address isn’t an exact match, have both carriers clarify the location.

• The circuit ID of the circuit: The circuit ID on your CFA is the number that your long-distance carrier will use to reference this circuit for as long as you have it. You need this number if you make any changes to the circuit, or if you have to open a trouble ticket on it. Keep this information handy at all times.

• The bay, panel, and jack into which your circuit will connect: This line item of the CFA is the most important. As long as you have this line item of text, you can send the order to the next step with the local carrier. The specific information may look like gibberish to you, but to a technician with your local carrier it functions like a set of GPS coordinates.

• A small disclaimer that the CFA will expire in 30 days if it’s not used: Nothing is forever, and the saying holds true in telecom as well. If you don’t use your CFA in 30 days, it might expire and be offered to someone else. This is important to remember when your local carrier is pulling cable or installing new hardware before they can make the connection, causing delays in your order. If you’re approaching the 30-day mark, try asking your carrier for a few more days. If you’re looking at a problem that is going to take 60 days or more to correct, you have to request a new CFA when it’s closer to your expected resolution.

   Remember  The CFA is sent to you only if you ordered the local loop. After you receive the CFA, you should check it out, make a copy, and forward the document on to your local carrier immediately unless there’s a problem. The local carrier uses the information in the CFA to design its portion of the circuit. Your local carrier can’t do any design work on the circuit until it receives the CFA, so it’s important to get the CFA to the local carrier as quickly as possible.

Understanding the Design Layout Record (DLR)

Your local carrier will take 2 to 15 days to design and construct its portion of the circuit from the CFA you supplied. The time frame varies quite a bit with all carriers. Smaller carriers can finish a design within 48 hours, but larger companies have set procedures that lengthen the time it takes to do the same thing. After the circuit is designed, your local carrier will send you a Design Layout Record (DLR) document that outlines the circuit and all the pertinent technical information about the local loop.

At first glance, the entire DLR document might look like nonsense. If you look hard enough, though, you find at least the following information scattered somewhere on the DLR:

• The order number used internally by your local carrier: Your local carrier generates its own internal order number for your local loop for tracking purposes. The local carrier might also list the long-distance carrier’s order number, but that is simply as a cross-reference.

• The circuit ID used internally by your local carrier: This is the code by which your local carrier refers to your circuit from the day you receive your DLR until the day the circuit is cancelled. You need to keep this number handy in case you change the circuit or have trouble with it. The local carrier’s customer care rep will ask you for the circuit ID in order to open up a trouble ticket.

• The CLLI code for the first local carrier CO to which your circuit terminates: This code identifies the physical location of the local carrier Central Office of your circuit before it reaches the POP of your long-distance carrier. This enables your long-distance carrier to identify with greater accuracy the cables that are placed at the CFA location.

• The CLLI code for your long-distance carrier’s POP: Confirm that the CLLI is correct and that your local carrier hasn’t decided to take your local loop somewhere it was not invited.

• The bay, panel, and jack from which the cabling will leave your local carrier’s network: This is important information, because your long-distance carrier may need to validate the cabling provided by your local carrier to ensure it is plugging into the right CFA point.

• The plant test date (PTD): This is the date your local carrier is planning to test the circuit with your long-distance carrier.

• The committed due date: This is the date your local carrier expects to have the circuit complete and ready for you to activate.

After you receive the DLR from your local carrier, you need to forward it to your long-distance carrier. The long-distance carrier uses the information to identify when your local carrier is going to finish its end of the circuit and gives the long-distance carrier some indication of how the order numbers, circuit IDs, or customer name may be written on the cabling provided by the local carrier.

Using a meet-me room (MMR)

All large carrier hotels have a meet-me room that is either a suite or a complete floor in the building. Abbreviated as MMR, this room acts as a general cross-connect area for all carriers. The meet-me room looks like a zoo for computer equipment with rows of locked cages containing servers and switches of every carrier (local and long distance) as well as every collocation provider in the building, all flashing green, yellow, and red lights. If your carrier is on the 13th floor and your collocation provider is on the 2nd floor, you may be able to avoid paying for a zero-mile loop if both companies also have a cage in the meet-me room. In this case, you should request a CFA from your carrier at the meet-me room and let your collocation provider finish the cross-connect. These are frequently the easiest and quickest connections you can make to install a circuit.

The final connection of your circuit between your carriers is completed in steps:

1. The technician from your local carrier physically drops 6 to 9 feet of cable to the CFA point.

2. The technician locates the cage identified in the CFA document, writes down the circuit ID or customer name on the cable to tag it, and then feeds down enough cable for the long-distance carrier to finish the connection.

3. The technician from your long-distance carrier looks for the cable in its cage based upon the information on the DLR and connects the circuit into the assigned CFA point.