Many people are confused by all of the options for local and long distance service so we would like to attempt to simplify things for you. We hope that the following explanation makes it all a bit clearer.
In most areas a telephone user gets a phone number from the local company who has the right to provide those numbers. This company, called a Local Exchange Carrier or 'LEC', installs the lines under the streets and on telephone poles. The LEC provides you with your telephone numbers, directory advertising, and local 411 directory assistance. The seven regional Bell companies (Pacific Telesis, US West, NYNEX, etc.) are the primary LECs although General Telephone, Contel and other smaller companies share many markets. In the future, look to FiberNet and other Inter Exchange Carriers as well as many cable television companies to provide phone numbers.
When you dial a number, the call is then carried and billed by either the LEC or your equal access long distance carrier. Without Telemanagement, who carries the call and bills you for the call depends on one thing; does the call originate and terminate within the same regional calling area commonly called a LATA or Service Area. LATA stands for Local Access and Transport Area. The entire country is divided into LATAs. LATAs were determined by boundaries of commerce rather than geography or politics. As a result, some states have only one LATA, some have many. Some LATAs cross over state lines. Under Equal Access, a call which originates and terminates in the same LATA will normally be billed by the Local Exchange Carrier. These are called intra-LATA calls. On the other hand, a call which originates in one LATA and terminates in another will automatically be billed by F I B E R N E T when you select F I B E R N E T as your equal access carrier. These calls are called inter-LATA calls..
Intra-LATA calls are priced based on mileage circles from your office or home and you can see this on your local telephone company bill. Normally you will see zone 1 and 2 combined without a detail of individual calls. Zone 1&2 calls are from 0-12.9 miles away. Zone 3 calls are from 13-16.9 miles. Calls beyond 16.9 miles are called Service Area Calls, Local Toll Calls, Regional Calls or one of many different names. To paraphrase Shakespeare; "What's in a name. An Intra-LATA call by any other name would still cost as much."
With Telemanagement, F I B E R N E T has the ability to handle not only the calls between LATAs under equal access, but also the intra-LATA calls. Since, under equal access, the LEC only automatically routes Inter-Lata calls to FiberNet, an Intra-LATA call must be preceded with F I B E R N E T's carrier code, 10350, to route the call properly. Carrier codes such as 10350 are codes assigned to all carriers by Bellcore, the single nationwide agency which monitors carrier assignments.
If you are a small user with very little intra-LATA calling, you may dial the 10350 code manually or program it in the speed dial buttons of your telephone. However, larger customers may benefit from having the code automatically dialed for them whenever F I B E R N E T would be the proper routing for the call. Many telephone systems have this capability, called least cost routing or automatic route selection. F I B E R N E T will provide your telephone system vendor with routing instructions. If your phone lines do not connect to a telephone system with this ability, F I B E R N E T will install Smart Dialers which do the routing for you. Each Dialer supports 4 telephone lines. With new technology, this routing takes less than one second.
If you spend $2,000 or more on F I B E R N E T services, you are a candidate for SPECTRUM T1 service. SPECTRUM T1 is a digital "WATS line" with 24 telephone lines. Your telephone system is program to route any call which is more cost effective over F I B E R N E T on a SPECTRUM line instead of a local line. Since SPECTRUM is a direct connection from your telephone system to the F I B E R N E T network, no additional digits need to be inserted for intra-LATA calls. This means faster connections. And since SPECTRUM T1 gives you 24 phone lines, you may save money by disconnecting local phones lines leaving just enough for local outgoing calls and incoming calls.
F I B E R N E T - Equal Access Service
Equal Access Service makes F I B E R N E T's fully digital network the carrier of choice on your existing telephone lines.
Starting your F I B E R N E T Equal Access Service is a simple process. F I B E R N E T handles notifying your local telephone company that you wish to use F I B E R N E T.
You are normally connected to F I B E R N E T within 2-3 business days.
If you wish to begin taking advantage of
F I B E R N E T sooner, F I B E R N E T offers Dial Bypass
access to our fully digital network. You may access the F I B E R N
E T network from your telephone lines simply by dialing 10350, followed
by the area code and number. Once we establish a
F I B E R N E T account for
you and enter your phone numbers into the F I B E R N E T database
you can begin using dial-up service.
Dial Bypass may be activated on a telephone number even if F I B E R N E T is not the Equal Access carrier on that number. This is useful to allow employees to easily make business calls from home at the same cost as an Equal Access call made from the office. By using the Dial Access code, the call will appear on the office bill.
If your telephone system has least-cost-routing, we will provide all access code information and routing tables to your telephone system vendor so that you can begin using F I B E R N E T within 48 hours.
If your telephone system does not offer least cost routing, F I B E R N E T can install external least cost routing units for a nominal monthly charge of $10 per month per dialer. Each dialer supports 4 telephone lines.
F I B E R N E T - SPECTRUM Dedicated T-1 Service
24 Fully Digital Fiber Optic connections directly into the FiberNet network.
Digital T-1 Service provides lower cost and higher quality than standard Equal Access Service.
In terms of quality, using Digital T1 Service instead of Equal Access Service is like the difference between a Compact Disc and an LP record !
Rates are lower per minute than Equal Access Service because T1 service is not subject to access fees charged by your local telephone company on Equal Access Lines.
By using SPECTRUM service you are assured of savings of at least 25% over Equal Access Service.
SPECTRUM Digital T-1 service can be connected directly into most digital telephone systems, providing 24 lines on a single card. This can save you valuable space in your telephone system and reduce expansion costs.
Older telephone systems can still benefit from SPECTRUM service using F I B E R N E T's Digital Conversion Units; commonly known as channel banks.
SPECTRUM service replaces up to 24 local lines, reducing your monthly telephone charges further. A monthly connection charge for SPECTRUM service applies and is based on the distance from your building's location to the closest F I B E R N E T location. In many cases, the connection point may be in your building, so the connection charge will be significantly less than with other carriers.