The bank I work for has three branches in a small community in Alabama. They have on-net dialing to the rest of the company via two E&M tie lines that run from the local CO to our closest PBX. (Local access is Centrex.) The office with the PBX lost power last weekend due to severe weather; this event prompted us to test all phone services for these branches. As of yesterday, one of the tie lines was still down. We've been working with AT&T for two days on this but apparently there is a small local phone company that is involved in providing these circuits, which is delaying resolution.
The manager at one of these branches says that on-net dialing has been intermittently unavailable for at least 6 months. This makes me wonder if one of the tie lines may have been out of service for a long time and we never knew it until we tested last week.
1) Our PBX shows the circuit as idle. Is it likely that an AT&T (or local phone company) switch was in alarm? If so, should we expect notification?2) These branches have a total of 20-25 employees. Does 2 tie lines for on-net dialing sound under-trunked to you? Is there a rule of thumb for this?
3) I plan to request a traffic study. Is one week enough time for statistically meaningful results?Thanks for any insights you can offer. Bob