[VoiceOps] Connecting to Remote Tandems

[Mary Lou Carey]

There are a couple differences for various reasons. In the LERG there 
are actually 3 tandems listed: One for Local, One for IntraLATA, and one 
for FGD traffic. When you interconnect with only the ILEC, they only 
have you establish 2 trunk groups. A local tandem trunk group that 
handles the Local and IntraLATA traffic, and an Access Tandem trunk 
group that handles the transit traffic you and the IXC carriers. When 
you are  connected to the ILEC, all 3 tandem offices in the LERG are 
listed as the ILECs tandems.

If you hire a third party tandem provider for just "access traffic", 
you're only changing that FGD tandem so the only trunk group you are 
eliminating with the ILEC is the Access Tandem Trunk group.

If you're going to have a third party tandem provider handle your local 
and IntraLATA traffic as well as your FGD traffic, then the LERG records 
change significantly. Instead of using your own switch CLLI, you get a 
POI CLLI for the LATA and populate the third party tandem provider's 
switch CLLI in the actual switch field of the LERG. This tells everyone 
that the NXXs belong to your company, but you're leasing another 
company's switch to handle all the routing. This service eliminates the 
need for all dedicated trunks between you and the ILEC so you just have 
trunks between you and the third party tandem.

However, there is one more caveat and that is that it depends on what 
ILEC you are interconnecting with. Verizon will allow the 3rd party 
tandem provider to add your company's NXXs onto their existing trunk 
group. CenturyLink and AT&T do not do that. They require the third party 
tandem providers to install a dedicated trunk group for each company 
that they are providing switching service for. Because a dedicated trunk 
group between them and the ILEC costs them more, they will bill you 
differently in those areas.

So the upside to having a third party tandem provider for Local 
IntraLATA traffic is that you don't have to manage the Local IntraLATA 
trunks yourself. The downside is that you probably will pay more per 
minute if you send the traffic through the third party tandem provider. 
Make sense?


MARY LOU CAREY
BackUP Telecom Consulting
Office: 615-791-9969
Cell: 615-796-1111

On 2019-08-09 02:42 PM, Mike Hammett wrote:
> I'm evaluating methods of extending our footprint. I purposely left
> out company names.
> 
> One of the companies we talked to was really only interested in
> getting us the inbound long distance calls, not the local ones. Well,
> they would, but the terms were vastly different.
> 
> Given that I still need to build out to connect to the local tandem,
> what's the point in using a third party to connect to long distance?
> 
> Are the terms for connecting to the local tandems different because
> the access tandem is simpler, whereas the local tandem could
> potentially involve connections to a bunch of other switches, once
> volume dictated I needed direct connections...  and they don't want to
> deal with that?
> 
> Are there third parties that don't have vastly different terms for
> local tandem services?
> 
> Also, is it likely that I just don't understand what's going on? I
> went circles with the sales rep to make sure I understood what he was
> saying, but I could be wrong.
> 
> -----
> Mike Hammett
> Intelligent Computing Solutions
> http://www.ics-il.com
> 
> Midwest Internet Exchange
> http://www.midwest-ix.com
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