glutt
@ispnetbilling.com | What does a CO look like ?
Hi i was wondering if anybody had any pics of a telco CO, or knew where i might find some.
Thanks |
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justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY | some of them are pretty ugly, from what I have heard. They are rarely as nice as even a moderately well designed computer room. |
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TomS_
debugger it
Premium,MVM
join:2002-07-19
Australia | reply to glutt
Picture the isles in a supermarket, then picture the shelves as plain white/beige boxes with a couple of flashing lights on them. Thats about what you'd be looking at  |
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UDubergamer
join:2004-03-03
Zeeland, MI | reply to glutt
Yup they are covered in wires, and hum loudly from the Telco switchs. The cross connects are large and sometimes confusing! |
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justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY | reply to glutt
Ok here is the only example I could quickly find of some ADSL cross connects:
»maxolasersquad.com/network/dslamblock.jpg |
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Andy5000
join:2001-12-20
Parsippany, NJ | reply to glutt
»www.centralofficeonline.com/ |
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glutt
@ispnetbilling.com
| I guess what i am asking is... How big are these things? are they like a building or just a little box? The reason i ask is, where i thought it should be i drove by there and all i see is a little tiny box on a pole, no way its a CO ? i live in a very small town, maybe 1000 people. maybe the map cords are off on the mapqwest map or somthing, but thats all i can see from where it says it is on a map, the map from this website. |
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Brianv5
Low Level Functionary
Premium
join:2001-01-20
Keyser, WV
| reply to glutt
Usually, the CO is an actual office. For a carrier that has multiple CO's in an area could have a main one then several smaller ones in an area. The smaller ones could be like an outside closet almost.
Space is limited which is why its hard to be an ILEC and get your DLSAM in with theirs.
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More power never hurt anything. |
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MacThrasher
Please replace user and reboot.
Premium
join:2002-04-26
Chagrin Falls, OH
clubs:  
 ·AT&T Midwest
 ·DIRECTV
| reply to glutt
They are usually brick or concrete buildings with little or no windows. They are constructed this way so that they can withstand storms, tornados, etc.
They may or may not be marked with the local phone companies name on it.
Here are some i was able to find on Google quickly.
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The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.  • Never Forget. • Your Tropical Retreat from the stress of Jihad. |
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boethius
Boo-Yah
Premium
join:2002-01-28
Winters, CA
clubs:
| reply to Brianv5
said by Brianv5  :Space is limited which is why its hard to be an ILEC and get your DLSAM in with theirs. I think you mean CLEC. The ILEC (Incumbent) by definition will be the one who built/owns the CO (usually one of the RBOCs).
And, yes, you're right, it usually is quite difficult to colo in a telco central office. The COs emptied out in the 70s, 80s and 90s with the advent of increasingly smaller digital switching hardware and away from the old huge, analog crossbar relay switching, but now they're filling back up with DSLAMs and CLECs and ISPs who want colo space.
On a totally weird tangent, there's a horror/suspense movie (compared to today, it's basically tame suspense) made in the 1970s called "Black Christmas" with Keir Dullea (Dave Bowman from "2001") and Olivia Hussey ("Romeo and Juliet") that has good video of the old crossbar equipment as they show how they manually traced phone calls to the sorority house Hussey lives in. |
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Greg_Z
Premium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL
 ·Comcast
| Another good movie is Three Days of the Condor where Robert Redford is in the CO for NYBell. I grew up in CO's due to my father worked for the Telephone Co (Western Electric, then IL Bell). I have been in all but two CO's in Springfield, and still remember the largest one was in Columbus OH. that sat in the middle of nowhere, which now it no longer is, but surrounded by buildings.
A CO is nothing impressive, and really is nothing more then a room filled with racks of equipment, and can cause a Migraine if you stay in the room too long, due to the constant hum from the fans.
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One man's customer loyalty is another man's misguided arrogance.
Another Tech forum site
Get your own Tekwear |
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Dark_Fiber
Here We Go Again.
join:2004-06-13
Saint Charles, MO
| reply to glutt
Rectifiers | 
Batteries | 
Splice cases in the vault | 
Feeder cables from the protector frame |
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justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY | thanks! |
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kewlkeed
Grouch
Premium
join:2005-02-05
Knowlton, QC | reply to glutt
Heya Dark_Fiber,
If you've got any more keep 'em coming. Love it!
Thanks!  |
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mikebb278
join:2002-06-17
Cincinnati, OH | reply to Dark_Fiber
If I am not mistaken, that battery plant puts out +24vdc, that is a Lucent rectifier, and by the amount of cable (and lack of fiber) that this is a CO for a mainly residential area or a small town. |
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Dark_Fiber
Here We Go Again.
join:2004-06-13
Saint Charles, MO | That is a smaller office. It does have fiber in it, I just don't have any pictures of the fiber equipment. It is part of an OC-192 SONET ring and has several smaller OC-3 rings that feed RT's in the area. |
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CopperMux
join:2005-01-18 | reply to glutt
Dark Fiber, that is the cleanest, neatest vault I have ever seen. Nothing like that here!! |
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hafizullah
join:2001-03-17
Flemington, NJ
·Embarq
| reply to glutt
The COs i've seen (Qwest, Sprint) are basically very nondescript brick buildings with the telco name on them, some large HVAC ports, and little else. In small communities, they might be only one story; in Seattle, they are three or four stories high. |
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LazMan
join:2003-03-26
Angus, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| reply to mikebb278
said by mikebb278 :If I am not mistaken, that battery plant puts out +24vdc, that is a Lucent rectifier, and by the amount of cable (and lack of fiber) that this is a CO for a mainly residential area or a small town. Typically +24vdc plants are for radio/cellular only. Most landline CO's are -48vdc.
Laz |
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bilbusb
join:2003-04-10
Tucker, GA
·Service Electric B..
| The CO i was at (i got a tour from bellsouth)
another with all the data switches
another with 3 diesel generators
another with what looked like 100's of car batterys
A larger room with lots of 66 blocks (alot of em)
another room full of fiber stuff and dslams.
It was quite a place |
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