[Telecom] Switch to AT&T PSTN from local telco

May 19, 2008 4 Replies

Work told me to switch my home office POTS from the local Frontier telco to a corporate managed AT&T PSTN service. A friend who used to work for Frontier tells me AT&T does not have a POP in the Middletown, NY central office. I made this known to work and their reply was my location "qualifies" for AT&T service so I should make the change. How can AT&T deliver when there is no local POP ? Steve



They subcontract to the local telco.

--scott

I seem to recall in the '90s, when I lived in Rochester, NY -- not long after Rochester Telephone changed their name to Frontier, and well before they sold out to Global Crossing and were then sold to Citizens

-- that AT&T offered CLEC service in Rochester.

Another possibility is that their "AT&T" service might actually be through ACC Business. ACC Telecom, also based in Rochester, used to be a CLEC focusing on colleges and small businesses. AT&T bought them in the late '90s. They still operate as an independent business division.

"Steven Stone" wrote

FX service? A common way to connect "small", "remote" locations to a PSTN.

Follow up - I put in the paperwork as directed by work. Manager approved paperwork, week later e-mail from AT&T rep says "Sorry, Service not available in your area." Directed to use plan C, which is retaining home office local number and order phantom number / phone mail forwarded from nearest corporate office to home office, about a 30 mile drive in an adjoining LATA. My local telco friends were right.. the AT&T database was broke. Steve

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