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glutt
@ispnetbilling.com

glutt

Anon

What does a CO look like ?

Hi i was wondering if anybody had any pics of a telco CO, or knew where i might find some.

Thanks

justin
..needs sleep
Mod
join:1999-05-28
2031

justin

Mod

some of them are pretty ugly, from what I have heard. They are rarely as nice as even a moderately well designed computer room.

TomS_
Git-r-done
MVM
join:2002-07-19
London, UK

TomS_ to glutt

MVM

to glutt
Picture the isles in a supermarket, then picture the shelves as plain white/beige boxes with a couple of flashing lights on them. Thats about what you'd be looking at

UDubergamer
join:2004-03-03
Zeeland, MI

UDubergamer to glutt

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to glutt
Yup they are covered in wires, and hum loudly from the Telco switchs. The cross connects are large and sometimes confusing!

justin
..needs sleep
Mod
join:1999-05-28
2031

justin to glutt

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to glutt
Ok here is the only example I could quickly find of some ADSL cross connects:

»maxolasersquad.com/netwo ··· lock.jpg

Andy5000
join:2001-12-20
Parsippany, NJ

1 recommendation

Andy5000 to glutt

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»www.centralofficeonline.com/

glutt
@ispnetbilling.com

glutt

Anon

I guess what i am asking is... How big are these things? are they like a building or just a little box? The reason i ask is, where i thought it should be i drove by there and all i see is a little tiny box on a pole, no way its a CO ? i live in a very small town, maybe 1000 people. maybe the map cords are off on the mapqwest map or somthing, but thats all i can see from where it says it is on a map, the map from this website.

Brianv5
Low Level Functionary
Premium Member
join:2001-01-20
Keyser, WV

Brianv5 to glutt

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to glutt
Usually, the CO is an actual office. For a carrier that has multiple CO's in an area could have a main one then several smaller ones in an area. The smaller ones could be like an outside closet almost.
Space is limited which is why its hard to be an ILEC and get your DLSAM in with theirs.

MacThrasher
Premium Member
join:2002-04-26
Chagrin Falls, OH

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Click for full size
Click for full size
They are usually brick or concrete buildings with little or no windows. They are constructed this way so that they can withstand storms, tornados, etc.

They may or may not be marked with the local phone companies name on it.
Here are some i was able to find on Google quickly.

boethius
Boo-Yah
Premium Member
join:2002-01-28
Winters, CA

boethius to Brianv5

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to Brianv5
said by Brianv5:

Space is limited which is why its hard to be an ILEC and get your DLSAM in with theirs.
I think you mean CLEC. The ILEC (Incumbent) by definition will be the one who built/owns the CO (usually one of the RBOCs).

And, yes, you're right, it usually is quite difficult to colo in a telco central office. The COs emptied out in the 70s, 80s and 90s with the advent of increasingly smaller digital switching hardware and away from the old huge, analog crossbar relay switching, but now they're filling back up with DSLAMs and CLECs and ISPs who want colo space.

On a totally weird tangent, there's a horror/suspense movie (compared to today, it's basically tame suspense) made in the 1970s called "Black Christmas" with Keir Dullea (Dave Bowman from "2001") and Olivia Hussey ("Romeo and Juliet") that has good video of the old crossbar equipment as they show how they manually traced phone calls to the sorority house Hussey lives in.

Greg_Z
Premium Member
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL

Greg_Z

Premium Member

Another good movie is Three Days of the Condor where Robert Redford is in the CO for NYBell. I grew up in CO's due to my father worked for the Telephone Co (Western Electric, then IL Bell). I have been in all but two CO's in Springfield, and still remember the largest one was in Columbus OH. that sat in the middle of nowhere, which now it no longer is, but surrounded by buildings.

A CO is nothing impressive, and really is nothing more then a room filled with racks of equipment, and can cause a Migraine if you stay in the room too long, due to the constant hum from the fans.
Dark_Fiber
Here We Go Again.
join:2004-06-13
Saint Charles, MO

Dark_Fiber to glutt

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Click for full size
Rectifiers
Click for full size
Batteries
Click for full size
Splice cases in the vault
Click for full size
Feeder cables from the protector frame
Here are some pictures of a CO cable vault and battery banks. Not very exciting, but here it is...

justin
..needs sleep
Mod
join:1999-05-28
2031

justin

Mod

thanks!

kewlkeed
Grouch
Premium Member
join:2005-02-05
Knowlton, QC

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Heya Dark_Fiber,

If you've got any more keep 'em coming. Love it!

Thanks!
mikebb278
join:2002-06-17
Marana, AZ

mikebb278 to Dark_Fiber

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to Dark_Fiber
If I am not mistaken, that battery plant puts out +24vdc, that is a Lucent rectifier, and by the amount of cable (and lack of fiber) that this is a CO for a mainly residential area or a small town.
Dark_Fiber
Here We Go Again.
join:2004-06-13
Saint Charles, MO

Dark_Fiber

Member

That is a smaller office. It does have fiber in it, I just don't have any pictures of the fiber equipment. It is part of an OC-192 SONET ring and has several smaller OC-3 rings that feed RT's in the area.
CopperMux
join:2005-01-18

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Dark Fiber, that is the cleanest, neatest vault I have ever seen. Nothing like that here!!
hafizullah2
join:2001-03-17
Flemington, NJ

hafizullah2 to glutt

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to glutt
The COs i've seen (Qwest, Sprint) are basically very nondescript brick buildings with the telco name on them, some large HVAC ports, and little else. In small communities, they might be only one story; in Seattle, they are three or four stories high.

LazMan
Premium Member
join:2003-03-26
Beverly Hills, CA

LazMan to mikebb278

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to mikebb278
said by mikebb278:

If I am not mistaken, that battery plant puts out +24vdc, that is a Lucent rectifier, and by the amount of cable (and lack of fiber) that this is a CO for a mainly residential area or a small town.
Typically +24vdc plants are for radio/cellular only. Most landline CO's are -48vdc.

Laz
bilbusb
join:2003-04-10
Tucker, GA

bilbusb

Member

The CO i was at (i got a tour from bellsouth)

another with all the data switches

another with 3 diesel generators

another with what looked like 100's of car batterys

A larger room with lots of 66 blocks (alot of em)

another room full of fiber stuff and dslams.

It was quite a place

jeffmoss26
join:2002-07-22
Beachwood, OH

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I was in one in california a few years back. A couple floors of the place were completely empty because of the ESS switches, they were able to replace all the older gear with the 5E's and get a lot of free space. They had a floor devoted to colo cages which was pretty cool. Also of course the miles of copper, fiber, and blocks!
It was pretty cool.
Jeff

cow116
Cisco Kid
Premium Member
join:2003-03-10
Indianapolis, IN

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back when i was in high school i lived in Peoria Illinois. I got to Job Shadow one of the networking guys fro Caterpillar INC. Their world HQ is in peoria. 4 floors of redudndant multi mode fiber going to each server,$20Million a month just for the internet line leases, 4 battery arrays PER floor, 3 huge diesel generators plus 2 Nat gas generators. it was nuts.

Nymostwanted
Who Cares?
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join:2004-06-25
Bronx, NY

2 recommendations

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»www.wap.org/journal/coto ··· ult.html

Splitpair
Premium Member
join:2000-07-29
Cow Towne

1 edit

Splitpair to justin

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to justin
said by justin:

some of them are pretty ugly, from what I have heard. They are rarely as nice as even a moderately well designed computer room.
Never been in a BellSouth office have you. Most are so clean one could eat off the floor. No dust no dirt with an A/c system that filters out even the smallest particles.

Noisy hardly at all.

Another thing few relaize is they are using the same layout standards. As such a CO tech could go to any ILEC CO and work using only the WORD document as a guide.

That cannot be said for a computer/data room.

Wayne
Splitpair

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said by glutt :

I guess what i am asking is... How big are these things?
They vary. There are a few in major cities that are 20+ stories high there are others that are in 10 x 20 foot pre-fab concrete huts. Once and a while I work in a CO in Pompano that is under a highway if you didn't know what you where looking for you would never see the hatch to get down there.

Wayne
Splitpair

Splitpair to mikebb278

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to mikebb278
said by mikebb278:

If I am not mistaken, that battery plant puts out +24vdc, that is a Lucent rectifier, and by the amount of cable (and lack of fiber) that this is a CO for a mainly residential area or a small town.
I dont know about that the battery strings look wired for 48.

Wayne
Splitpair

Splitpair to LazMan

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to LazMan
said by LazMan:

Typically +24vdc plants are for radio/cellular only. Most landline CO's are -48vdc.

Laz
If the office has a traditional switch it will be 48 volt based and I would guess that applies to 100% of ILEC offices under NEBS.

Cell sites are a mixed bag many of the older sites are 48 volt based while the x gens seem to be all 24 volt based.

Wayne
Splitpair

Splitpair to TomS_

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to TomS_
said by TomS_:

Picture the isles in a supermarket
Substitute the term lineup for isles and you are in a CO.

Wayne

DSL Lab Rat
Runnin' On The Wheel
join:2001-04-18
Pelham, AL

DSL Lab Rat to Splitpair

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to Splitpair
said by Splitpair:
said by LazMan:

Typically +24vdc plants are for radio/cellular only. Most landline CO's are -48vdc.

Laz
If the office has a traditional switch it will be 48 volt based and I would guess that applies to 100% of ILEC offices under NEBS.

Cell sites are a mixed bag many of the older sites are 48 volt based while the x gens seem to be all 24 volt based.

Wayne
FWIW... There are more than a few 1AESS analog central offices still out there in both ILECS and CLECS. The 1AESS requires both -48v and +24 volt battery plants ....

iLive4Fusion
Premium Member
join:2006-07-13

iLive4Fusion

Premium Member

said by DSL Lab Rat:

said by Splitpair:
said by LazMan:

Typically +24vdc plants are for radio/cellular only. Most landline CO's are -48vdc.

Laz
If the office has a traditional switch it will be 48 volt based and I would guess that applies to 100% of ILEC offices under NEBS.

Cell sites are a mixed bag many of the older sites are 48 volt based while the x gens seem to be all 24 volt based.

Wayne
FWIW... There are more than a few 1AESS analog central offices still out there in both ILECS and CLECS. The 1AESS requires both -48v and +24 volt battery plants ....
I am in the Hoover/Helena Area and I am on a 205-426-xxxx line and we have a WECO #1AESS switch and you can hear alot of clicking during the call setup.. I am assuming that there is nothing digital about this switch?