Re: Off premise extension (Was: Telegraph channels today? [Telecom]

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>>> Many years ago (late 60's to 1971), my father had his work phone >>> wired so that it also rang in his home office, several miles >>> away. That arrangement also allowed him to dial out with the calls >>> billed to the company. (He was the only employee in a branch >>> office.) My brother and I were told that we were not to play with >>> that phone or answer it under any circumstances. > It was called an off-premise extension and surely is still > available today. Not an uncommon arrangement...charges involved > mileage, of course, and if it was in a different exchange might > involve engineering costs. It could, in fact, be in a distant city > under appropriate circumstances. > > > > Wes Leatherock > snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com > snipped-for-privacy@aol.com > > > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > As I said in my previous note, if you try to order one you'll get a > sales talk about the advantages of call-forward-no-answer: the IBOCs > are trying to minimize private-line offerings because they are so > maintenance-intensive and require specialized knowledge and expensive > tools to install and maintain. > > The idea is to put _EVERYTHING_ on a trunk, because trunks can be > tested and turned down automatically without paying a union worker to > do it. If you ask for a PLAR, you'll almost certainly find yourself > buying a business dial tone that has been programmed to auto-dial the > distant end, vice versa. Again, no high-priced humans need be involved. > > Bill, who used to be a Rated Toll Test Technician > > Bill Horne > Temporary Moderator > > (Please put [Telecom] at the end of the subject line of your post, or > I may never see it. Thanks!) >

I've used what Qwest called Off Premise PBX Extensions for years, between my PBX "Main" location and smaller buildings that needed only half a dozen telephones (Buildings with greater demand got remote equipment cabinets connected to the main via DS-1 service). This service was more channel bank like, with an "office" end and a "subscriber" end but the sales drone knew them by "OPS Extensions" (I don't know what the USOC for this service might have been). In my case all the locations (Main and distant) were served from the same CO so there were two loops connected by some equipment in the CO - no interoffice facilities involved.

These circuits were very reliable. Usual complaints were failure to ring at the distant end or lousy transmission. Once a problem did crop up, though, we had several days of problems. We always suspected the CO techs simply frogged circuit packs around to clear the first three or four trouble reports. Once we reported "chronic" issues did they get serious and begin actually troubleshooting and measuring things. Soon enough things got fixed and our troubles went underground for a few more months!

***** Moderator's Note *****

We used to call them a "Station Off Premise", but it's a difference that doesn't make any difference. The underlying technology was two wire signalling and range extenders, no matter if it was a station or an extension that was off the premise.

Unfortunately, two wire amplifiers required custom adjustment in order to be stable, and they got a very bad, and undeserved, reputation for instability because so few of the testers were trained to do the two-wire ERL (Echo Return Loss) tests that were supposed to be done during setup.

And, yes, you're right: many techs thought that frogging one repeater with another was an effective troubleshooting technique, although the practice caused more tickets than it cleared. Over time, management grew dissatisfied with the trouble history of these kinds of circuits, and they were gradually replaced, first with plug-in circuit cards equipped with automatic adjustment technology, and later by custom centrex offerings that, effectively, gave the customer a dial tone in a foreign co that acted like it was still attached to its home office.

I understand the financial and service-based drivers for these changes, but I sure wish we had been giving the training and time to do it right.

Bill Horne Temporary Moderator

(Please put [Telecom] at the end of the subject line of your post, or I may never see it. Thanks!)