orange
I love oranges
Premium
join:2008-04-16
Tucson, AZ
 ·Qwest.net
·XMission
 ·Comcast
| Need a Qwest tech to tell me where RT is, and other info
I'm definitely on an RT. I'm farther than 18000 feet from the CO - I know that, and back when I checked for DSL service a few years back, they told me to wait for an RT to be built in my area. Now an RT has been built obviously 
Just wondering about the RT itself. Are there any Qwest techs here I can PM my phone number and find out where the RT is, and if it's fed by fiber or a DS3? And possibly some dates for the 20mbps service. (I'd be willing to pay for that - yes, it's expensive, but Comcast is the worst ever. Packet loss and they won't fix their amp.) |
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cscottm
join:2002-05-09
Kent, WA | Did you by chance, go to their website & put in my phone # to check. My understanding is what the website says, pretty much says what the internal check system says. |
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orange
I love oranges
Premium
join:2008-04-16
Tucson, AZ | reply to orange
Yep - not available. I'm not asking to find out if it's available; I'm trying to figure out if any dates are available. |
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Fantanarama
@qwest.net
| reply to orange
Check within a 3-5-mile radius around you for very large boxes in the ground with their own power meter. Old-style RTs will be beige-colored with ridged doors, mounted about 8-10 inches off the ground by a large brown frame; new-style terminals are all-gray, mounted flush to the concrete pad with flat doors. You can tell what kind of backbones they're being fed by the speed tiers they're capable of provisioning from the terminal, methinks. |
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orange
I love oranges
Premium
join:2008-04-16
Tucson, AZ | reply to orange
I'm capable of getting up to 1.5mbps/896k. Both beige and gray sound kind of old for my area, but I'll keep my eyes open. A Qwest tech here is going to check out my phone number and give me more info as well. |
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christcorp
Premium
join:2001-05-21
Cheyenne, WY
 ·VOIPo
| reply to orange
Actually, if you are going to start looking for a box, then you will probably get confused. There's too many options. I can tell you right now; because you can only get 1.5/896, your dslam is being fed with Copper T1 lines. That is the norm. For you to get 5-7mb dsl, you will need a DS3 which is fiber. You could possibly get 3mb with copper T1's. It's called bonding. It's done in some places.
As far as finding the boxes; again that could be confusing. If you say 3 boxes close to each other, than that's a good chance of being what you are looking for. That would be the DSLAM in one box, the pair-gain (Your dial tone) in another box; and the Cross box (That's where all the wires get connected going towards your house). The problem is; sometime you have a dslam sitting by itself some place and it goes off in different directions to feed multiple cross boxes. It's also possible to an an Integrated Pair-gain that is located in 1 place; taking off and feeding the cross boxes; and the pair-gain off on it's own.
One thing is for sure. A pair-gain and a DSLAM both need power. They will have commercial power and a power meter next to it to feed it. No whether the box you see is just phone, just DSL, or both is hard to say. Later.... Mike..... |
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orange
I love oranges
Premium
join:2008-04-16
Tucson, AZ | reply to orange
And guess what.. there's a place VERY close to my house that has 3 boxes and (I believe) a commercial power meter. I'll go take pictures of it tomorrow morning.
Thanks all |
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Fantanarama
@qwest.net | @christcorp; Cross boxes and RTs are really hard to confuse, especially older RTs. Newer RTs look similar to cross boxes, but they're MUCH larger.
@orange; Do any of the 3 boxes fit the descriptions I laid out? |
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Fantanarama
@qwest.net
| Sorry for the double-post; confused pair-gain with cross box before re-reading your post, c-corp. Either way, hard to confuse them. It's also my understanding that their "Stinger boxes" act as a sort of RT, though they're a lot smaller (but still usually accompanied by a commercial power meter and a cross-box or pair-gain. Or both. I'm not sure of the capabilities of Stinger boxes compared to a standard RT though, some enlightenment would be welcome but I'd rather not 'jack the thread, you know. Maybe a side note or something. |
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christcorp
Premium
join:2001-05-21
Cheyenne, WY
·VOIPo
| I've seen every variation of RT. The one serving me starts with an Integrated Pair-Gain. From there, it goes down different streets and feeds 3 different cross boxes; all in different locations on different streets. In the mix of all of this, are 2 RT units also feeding those 3 cross boxes. So, NONE of the 3 are together. If I didn't have to work on them and was a visited tech, I would be trying to figure out who the genius engineer was that came up with that plan. Go figure. |
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Bruno_me
join:2004-12-28
Fort Collins, CO
| reply to orange
Out of curiosity, and due to the fact that google maps has street view for my whole city now, I was wondering if this is an RT. It's roughly 3 miles from the CO, and would explain why my friend who lives in this neighborhood can only get 1.5Mb/s. From all the Qwest trucks I've seen around, it looks like they're doing a huge fiber rollout, so I expect my friend should be able to upgrade in the near-ish future. Anyway, I noticed this group of boxes after having read this thread and my curiosity piqued. For the sake of completeness, the box on the left has a power meter next to it and apparently fans inside.
»tinyurl.com/5glomo |
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Fantanarama
@qwest.net | The center box is an old-style RT. The one just to the left of it is a "Stinger box"; the power meter seems to serve its purpose for both the RT and the "Stinger box". The one to the right of the RT appears to be a pair-gain, though I'm not sure. |
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djweis
join:2006-04-02
West Des Moines, IA | The cabinet on the right is the FDI/SAC (cross connect). No electronics, just jumpers. |
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