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Process for setting up dry loop in VZ territory

Dryloop usually isn't a painful experience at all. In most cases, if the apartment was rented out to someone before you, the apartment manager will have the inside wiring already connected properly, so that the previous tenant could have phone service. There's really no reason for the apartment manager to detach the inside wiring once it's set up properly, after all.

The first thing I would check is to see is if you're already getting any dial tone or busy signal when you plug a phone into the jack. If you do, that's a solid indicator that your inside wiring is "tied down" (connected) to terminal posts in the phone box. That doesn't guarantee that they're connected to the RIGHT terminal posts (it's possible they're tied down to the posts which are supposed to be used for the next apartment over, for example), but it's a simple and quick test to start with, assuming you've got a phone handset to check with.

If you don't hear such, that doesn't necessarily mean that your inside wiring isn't tied down. It could be that your apartment's lines are tied down, but the line coming in from outside (the 'drop') isn't tied down (at least, not tied down for the pair going to your apartment).

If you open up the phone box, then under ideal circumstances your apartment number should be clearly labeled next to a set of terminal posts, and you should see the wires from your apartment screwed down to a pair of those. If you see that, you're basically set (a tech might need to come out to connect the OUTSIDE line to terminal posts, but that's at no charge to you and is included in the standard setup time estimate).

Next-best scenario, you see the posts clearly labeled, and the wires from your apartment clearly labeled but loose (not attached to any posts), and you just wrap the pair of wires (usually colored red and green) around two of your terminal posts (one each) and tighten them down. This is actually really simple; anyone can do it.

Worst-case scenario is, your inside wiring isn't connected at all, and isn't labeled at all. Loose wires in a spaghetti tangle everywhere. If you're running into THAT sort of mess, then your best bet really is to get a live line connected first and then get that converted to a dryloop afterward (our ordering department can get that taken care of for you), and then once you have the dryloop conversion complete then call up the phone company and cancel the live line service... or, of course, bring in a third-party tech to fix the wires. It really is the apartment manager's responsibility to make sure the phone box is properly organized (it's considered part of the building itself, not the phone company's responsibility), so most dependable apartment managers will already have the phone box neatly organized, and many are either able to perform simple repairs themselves or have a local tech they use to handle such.

If our estimation system predicts you can get 7.1 speeds at that location, then that is indeed the level of speed you should be able to obtain. If you want to IM me your information, I can double-check that for you.

Nick,

Thanks for the thorough response. I'll check the phone line this evening and find out if I have acess to the phone box.

IM-ing you location information now.

Thanks again,

Nick