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kyphos
join:2014-03-26
Ottawa, ON

kyphos

Member

[Homephone] Warning: If you move to FTTH...

Warning: If you move to FTTH, be sure to thoroughly test operation of your phone service before the installer leaves your premises. In particular, verify:
- incoming calls,
- outgoing calls,
- outgoing LD (long distance) calls.

We had FTTH installed a couple weeks ago. We got the full Monty: phone, internet and Fibe TV. Service was ordered on Friday, installed on the following Monday! The installer strung a new optical tether from the pole, ran it down the side of the house and into the basement, and terminated it on the Alcatel-Lucent ONT (Optical Network Termination). It was a very clean installation - the ONT plus UPS nicely mounted on the backboard, cables neatly dressed, etc.

Unfortunately, the back-office programming at the Bell CO was not so efficient. We realized two days later that we'd not received any incoming calls. We had dial tone and could make outgoing calls, but incoming calls did not complete. Callers to our DN heard ring-no-answer. I called 611, and eventually learned that Bell had not migrated my phone number from the DMS line card (the POTS copper loop) over to the optical termination. Fortunately, Bell Repair got it sorted within an hour.

Another cock-up appeared this weekend. We found couldn't make LD calls. A Mother's Day call to Mom went to intercept: "Due to changes in your telephone service, your call cannot be completed.". Turns out this was the first chargeable LD call we'd attempted since the Fibe cutover. (Toll-free calls completed OK, it was just chargeable LD calls that were failing).

My phone service is somewhat unusual in that Bell is not my LD provider. I've been subscribed to an alternate LD carrier (Rogers) for LD service for many years (back to the days of Sprint Canada). It's much cheaper than Bell and has other feature benefits. After numerous calls with Rogers and Bell, I learned that Bell had neglected to transfer the LD programming for my line from the DMS line card to the optical termination. (in technical terms, they did not provision my line with the Rogers' CIC code as part of Feature Group D).

Bell's failure to correctly provision my Fibe phone line caused a domino to topple in the Rogers toll switch, which also disabled my access to their LD service. It took several calls back and forth with Bell and Rogers (18 hours elapsed time) to get their switches reprogrammed and my LD service restored.

Bell's FTTH offering is still in its infancy, and it's clear Bell has some work to do to get their back-office procedures in place and properly executed. To be sure, having an alternate LD provider is somewhat unusual, but that's really no excuse. So before your Fibe installer leaves, verify that you can make incoming and outgoing calls (local and toll) successfully.
btech805
join:2013-08-01
Canada

btech805

Member

Yes it is certainly a little more tricky with our ftth phone service essentially being a voip service now and lots has to be transfered from the pots dms card to your new ftth service. Im glad to hear everything was sorted out, and hopefully with more brownfield deployments (previous copper to ftth) happening now these screw ups get sorted out.

SimplePanda
BSD
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Montreal, QC

SimplePanda to kyphos

Premium Member

to kyphos
On the other hand, you'll be on FTTH and Skype exists.

hlo207
join:2012-11-16
North York, ON

hlo207 to kyphos

Member

to kyphos
When I got mine late Aug last year, I lost my Ident-A-Call line on a 2nd phone number. That line normally hooks to the fax machine that my parents use. We realize something was wrong weeks later when no fax can come in. I have to do some nagging on the Home Phone which sends me over to Fiber Optics before some figured out they have to program this....