Are they still around? Or do they get surplused too?
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I am a CO tech in D6. I have to cover 13 offices and fill in when someone is off. We had someone retire on my crew in July and no decision yet if or when he will be replaced. I am not holding my breath on that one.
DS1 and some DS3 alarms are being filtered from reporting to the NRC.
If those carriers are being filtered, how important do you think your POTS/DSL/Uverse line is?
I would guess that this response didn’t go over well for some.
Lol. The truth hurts. There are services carrying thousands of POTS lines or their equivalent that are much higher priority.
Most field techs aren’t trained on transport signal hierarchy, bandwidth, etc. They’ve been traine don what they need to know to keep the outside facility up (which in itself is very important).
I'm a CO tech and sorry, a Pots or dsl ticket is the lowest priority ticket we can get.
I would guess that this response didn’t go over well for some.
Those routines are what helps keep the network up and purring. What ? You thought it was PFM? Pure f—ing magic ?
"but you don't need a whole bunch of people to do monthly "routines", walk around and check LED's and what not. "
Wrong! Some of those routines like fuel tank inspections are required by law. Equipment needs its fan filters changed. Excess plugins need to be sent back. etc.
"Those that are left have it pretty, since there's not much work to do, except sweep the dust off the floor. Oh wait that's contracted out to happen once a month, They can just sit around and watch you tube all day."
Haha... That may be the case in your area. Not mine. Between new test and turn ups, CO assist tickets, routines and just the regular frame orders plus the drive time between offices since we all have multiple that we are responsible for, it can be quite busy. But there are slow days here and there as well. Those are the days you sweep the floor.
They are currently in the process of removing the park forest IL switch....another end coming soon.
Those that are left have it pretty, since there's not much work to do, except sweep the dust off the floor. Oh wait that's contrated out to happen once a month, They can just sit around and watch you tube all day.
I don't know about CO techs, but in the Mobility/ Wireless side of things we call these folks "switch" techs (they work in the MTSO's). In my area of the country, it's actually baffling how OVER staffed they are. Surplus activity never seems to touch them, yet many MTSO locations have been consolidated and most of their work has been farmed out to other organizations over the years. I am not knocking them so don't get me wrong, but you don't need a whole bunch of people to do monthly "routines", walk around and check LED's and what not.
Why the harsh talk towards CO techs? I’ve worked with them for 25plus years most are there to help you as much as they can!..Considering how short staffed they are!
I'm a CO tech and sorry, a Pots or dsl ticket is the lowest priority ticket we can get. A Pots ticket is an 8 hour E2C, IPCO tickets are 150 minutes E2C. Every other service is 65 minuts E2C. Oh, we can talk about "frame squat,, I mean frame share". This is were 3 techs in bucket trucks park their trucks in the CO parking lot and play frame attendants for 6 hours a day with 30 minutes of work...Best part is most of the CO assist tickets are closed by the frame share tech that "wired the circuit" in the first place. Yes I can read the event log...
Here we go again - co techs do a lot more than wait for your POTS ticket. You’re dispatched on your one ticket while on a typical day we have pages of tickets on our load in multiple offices.
Yes they are still around. They get a ticket to wire a Service Order and then they get another ticket when there is a wiring error. All the while the field tech only gets 1 ticket and often times has to drive into the CO after dropping a CO assist ticket and fix it himself because the CO tech is tied up at another location.
@zod...I saw 1 memo that said SONET would be around until 2028. It was referencing T1s but didn't mention anything specific about switched dial tone
I work off shift CO. I cover 14 offices on normal days and 28 offices when the other nearest tech is on vacation. Actually talk of them putting in job reqs because the cut to deep here in the midwest.
Randy said by 2020 would would not have COs as we know it, everything was to be VoiP and wireless. No more switched network. I wonder how that is working out.
Yeah in south florida , they’ve long ago been slashed. One CO tech has to manage quite a few COs now. No one is dedicated to one single CO anymore. They’re mostly in-manned. That’s why it takes so long to get a customer outage resolved. Gotta wait half a day just for the tech to head over to the right CO. And forget about a resolution after hours lol
Most central offices have been slashed to the bare bones. For several years they have been surplusing CO ETs till they cannot anymore. It is a burden when someone goes on vacation and we have to cover for them. I have to often drive an hour to get to another CO. The prospects for Randall to save money by cutting CO ETs are slim.
No work title is immune. System Techs, Ntecs, frame Techs, Power, everyone in play. Only if they have been slashed to bare bones will they be spared.
You can't virtualize the physical connections which have to be made at the equipment that serve businesses and customers