[cisco-voip] Copper plant

Tue Feb 8 10:18:39 EST 2022

Interesting story. We were called in to participate in a planning meeting where our security office was about to order a new mini telephone system for all elevators on campus.

And I’m all, wait, what?

So at the meeting, I asked that we discuss the issues surrounding the move to get a new $150,000 mini telephone system, and I wanted to opportunity to fix it first.

Turns out, the replaced elevator phone equipment with multiplexors to save money and these multiplexors do a self test which triggers a call because we had plar enabled on the pbx.

Disabling plar on the pbx and putting the destination on the elevator phone multiplexor fixed the problem.

They were <- this -> close to signing the P.O.

From: cisco-voip <cisco-voip-bounces at puck.nether.net> On Behalf Of Tim Reimers
Sent: Monday, February 7, 2022 8:04 PM
To: Lisa Notarianni <lisa.notarianni at scranton.edu>
Cc: Charles Goldsmith <w at woka.us>; cisco-voip <cisco-voip at puck.nether.net>
Subject: Re: [cisco-voip] Copper plant

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the University of Guelph. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. If in doubt, forward suspicious emails to IThelp at uoguelph.ca<mailto:IThelp at uoguelph.ca>

What we've discovered here in North Carolina is that evidently the elevators at least are being replaced by some sort of onboard video system that uses Ethernet and Internet connectivity provided by you the building owner.

However it does apparently use dial tone to start the conversation and then the elevator assistance company can video back into check out what's going on in the elevator.

I have not seen anywhere that North Carolina department of Labor has changed the regulations on what is allowable for elevator and other safety dial tone.

And yet as we've all heard Carrier seem to be abandoning analog dial tone from the central office as quick as they possibly can.

And as I said in another response to this thread I have no intention of buying $150 a month internet service for a blue box in a parking deck.

Nor do I want to backhaul sip or skinny dial tone from the parking deck across multiple l2 l3 intersections in my network and provide full fault tolerance on all of them until I hit my ISP.

And while I haven't had discussions with the city's legal department I suspect their liability response would look a lot like Lisa's...

Tim

On Fri, Feb 4, 2022, 3:03 PM Lisa Notarianni <lisa.notarianni at scranton.edu<mailto:lisa.notarianni at scranton.edu>> wrote:
Corrected…

On Feb 4, 2022, at 2:44 PM, Lisa Notarianni <lisa.notarianni at scranton.edu<mailto:lisa.notarianni at scranton.edu>> wrote:

Verizon owns the copper. We have multiple demarcations. About 1 per building and about 70 buildings. We had a discussion with them yesterday and they said they’re moving away from copper.

On Feb 4, 2022, at 2:12 PM, Charles Goldsmith <w at woka.us<mailto:w at woka.us>> wrote:

Lisa, is it your copper or Verizons?  If Verizon is removed, can you re-use the copper for analog phones and use VG's?

That would probably be the most cost effective way to transition.  Dropping ethernet is the next option and not cost effective as. you've stated.

The other thing you could go with is wireless phones, but securing redundant power may not be cost effective either, plus ensuring that your wireless coverage has redundant power.

Sometimes you just have to keep things simple and stick with analog, as bad as many of us detest it.

Good luck!
Charles

On Fri, Feb 4, 2022 at 12:09 PM Lisa Notarianni <lisa.notarianni at scranton.edu<mailto:lisa.notarianni at scranton.edu>> wrote:
Hello –

We are planning future projects and would appreciate input on what others have done with analog lines.  We currently use Verizon for over 500 analog lines on campus.  They provide service to call boxes, alarm lines, elevator lines, house phones etc…  We also don’t have network cable runs in some areas so we just kept the analog service running.

The idea behind all of this was to rely on Verizon Centrex service if our premise based VOIP phones or power went down and all phone service was lost on campus.  When we transitioned years ago to VoIP and moved the majority of lines away from Centrex, our General Counsel felt it would help with safety if we provided these phones in case of emergency.  I recently passed this by General Counsel and they still feel we need to continue to use this service for the same reason.  But I think the clock is ticking and from what I understand Verizon is abandoning copper.  They have suggested we transition to their VoIP service but it wouldn’t make sense to do that since they rely on our power. So, we would just switch to VoIP if we were to do that.

I know there is also an LTE option but many callboxes are in fields or parking lots and the equipment is dated.  So, on top of needing to address this, we really don’t have funding to replace expensive callboxes to accommodate LTE service.  I know we really need to evaluate and rethink the need for this equipment.  We have considered transitioning the funding to a safety app that students, staff and faculty can use but again we would put the onus of safety on the user and their wireless phone – not preferred.

This is complicated for Higher Ed.

Any solutions or steps anyone has taken?   Is Verizon really abandoning all copper?

Thanks,

Lisa

Lisa Notarianni
University of Scranton
Telecommunications Engineer
Infrastructure Services
800 Linden St.
Scranton PA 18510
570.941.4325

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