Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!iuvax!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Centrex, Everyone? Message-ID: <3596@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 6 Feb 90 17:50:48 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 52 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 81, message 4 of 6 John Higdon writes: [big flames about Centrex] > [Moderator's Note: Unlike Mr. Higdon, I *love* Centrex. How did I know this was coming? :-) > Mr. Higdon is > wrong about making configuration changes. Illinois Bell has a service > called 'Centrex-Mate' which allows subscribers to reconfigure their > own lines; in effect act as their own service reps. The changes take > effect within a few hours, although there is a charge for making them. That's fine for IBT customers, but it's Pac*Bell that has those ubiquitous ads. To my knowledge Pac*Bell has no such service and if they do, it is only for their gigantic customers, you know, the ones that could buy and sell their own phone company anyway, and don't need Centrex. > The control pair zips ahead of the call with a message for > the gizmo saying 'the call arriving on pair 96 is really someone who > dialed extension 2037' or similar. Likewise the gizmo takes outgoing > calls, finds a pair, and on the control line tells the CO 'the call I > am giving you on pair 127 came from extension 2481. Very clever and > effecient. Gee, that sounds like DID. But what about the "best part of Centrex" (as the Pac*Bell ads trumpet) is that *all* of the equipment is in Pacific Bell's office? If you are going to have a (switch?) piece of equipment at your own location that isn't CPE, then it sounds like the days of "call the phone company and have a phone system put in here." I have a client with an ITT3100. It has been long since paid for. It has given them no trouble. I can make config changes all day long at no charge (I'm on retainer for their broadcast facility and throw in phones as a bonus.) The switch does ARS, DID, is perfectly expandable, and completely reliable. All trouble calls have involved a bad trunk (Centrex *never* fails -- sure, it's nothing but trunks!) and have required a call to Pac*Bell, anyway. > While CPE is fine for some people, centrex is great for > the rest of us. PT] I have Commstar II on all of my residence lines, for the record. And behind that is my KX-T1232. The "Centrex" is more for toy value than anything else. I have 16 phones in the house; I would never dream of having that many lines (nor would I probably be able to get them). John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !