ONT Upgrade Update.
dexman
Community Leader
Community Leader

I bit and scheduled an upgrade of the Tellabs 611 ONT along with a bump-up of our Internet service to 400.

A few notes from yesterday's activities.....

.The Verizon field service technician, John, said that once saw my backboard, he knew someone in the house was involved with telecom.

.He was able to repurpose the Tellabs enclosure by drilling the mounting screws in and sliding the Alcatel-Lucent 211 in place.

.The first ONT he brought in from his truck could not be used because the 6P6C modular plug on my replacement telephone cable would not stay secured. He even tried a test cable in his pouch. Same story. He fetched a different one off the truck and it was fine.

. Verizon no longer uses Digicon RG6 compression connectors. Like Comcast, the company now uses PPC EX6XLs. I didn't think to ask what brand of RG6 cable is used.

.Verizon has also stopped using slate gray colored cable ties. Now it is almost 100% black, with some neutral-colored due to the use of white jacketed RG6 cable.

I snapped a few post installation pictures. Will post them below.

imageBefore (2)imageAfter (2)imageAfter (3)

All in all, the conversion went smoothly and it was great being able to talk shop with someone after almost 8 years since being laid off from my long time C.O. Technician position.

The downside to the upgrade is that I'm no longer receiving my landline service from the Verizon 5E in my town. Despite my request to make no changes to my voice services, my line was moved to a softswitch, and, I lost use of the grandfathered Call Intercept feature. There is no suitable substitute for that offering under the Verizon Digital Voice platform. 

0 Likes
1 Solution

Correct answers
Re: ONT Upgrade Update.
gs0b
Community Leader
Community Leader

As the OP is a former telco guy, they know the difference between analog and digital.  They know how the circuit switched network is architected and how VoIP works.  The issue is the 5ESS that Verizon uses for landline service has a legacy feature called "Call Intercept."  There is no equivalent feature in the soft-switches used to power FIos digital voice.  The OP's phone service was moved from a line on the 5ESS to an entry in the soft-switch, which he didn't want to happen(*).

OP: Take a look at NOMOROBO.  It's a free service that directs calls in it's database to an intercept message.  The caller can press a DTMF key to be connected.  You can set it up through the FDV web control panel or follow the instructions on nomorobo.com.  It's not quite Call Intercept, but it helps.  Inbound calls will ring once before interception.  Know that a lot of calls get through because it relies on CallerID, not ANI.  As I'm sure you know, CallerID spoofing is rampant in the spam call "industry."

FDV has lots of other features you'll never find on a 5ESS.  For example, simultaneous ring, voicemail sent to email, and so on.  Check out the control panel to learn more.  You may find you like the new features.

(*) I haven't heard of Verizon keeping Fios lines on the old switches in years.  Every line they move off a 5ESS is one less line they have to pay royalties on, gets rid of those pesky regulations, and gets them closer to full copper retirement.  That's why your request was ignored.


P.S.  Install looks great!  I'm glad they were able to re-use the enclosure.   Sounds like you made friends with the tech, which is a great way to get what you want.

View solution in original post

Re: ONT Upgrade Update.
Cang_Household
Community Leader
Community Leader

@dexman wrote:

my line was moved to a softswitch


First of all, nice pictures. Fios Digital Voice is VoIP between COs and in the backbone. VoIP are converted to wavelength at the OLT, then converted to analog at ONT.

Re: ONT Upgrade Update.
gs0b
Community Leader
Community Leader

As the OP is a former telco guy, they know the difference between analog and digital.  They know how the circuit switched network is architected and how VoIP works.  The issue is the 5ESS that Verizon uses for landline service has a legacy feature called "Call Intercept."  There is no equivalent feature in the soft-switches used to power FIos digital voice.  The OP's phone service was moved from a line on the 5ESS to an entry in the soft-switch, which he didn't want to happen(*).

OP: Take a look at NOMOROBO.  It's a free service that directs calls in it's database to an intercept message.  The caller can press a DTMF key to be connected.  You can set it up through the FDV web control panel or follow the instructions on nomorobo.com.  It's not quite Call Intercept, but it helps.  Inbound calls will ring once before interception.  Know that a lot of calls get through because it relies on CallerID, not ANI.  As I'm sure you know, CallerID spoofing is rampant in the spam call "industry."

FDV has lots of other features you'll never find on a 5ESS.  For example, simultaneous ring, voicemail sent to email, and so on.  Check out the control panel to learn more.  You may find you like the new features.

(*) I haven't heard of Verizon keeping Fios lines on the old switches in years.  Every line they move off a 5ESS is one less line they have to pay royalties on, gets rid of those pesky regulations, and gets them closer to full copper retirement.  That's why your request was ignored.


P.S.  Install looks great!  I'm glad they were able to re-use the enclosure.   Sounds like you made friends with the tech, which is a great way to get what you want.

Re: ONT Upgrade Update.
dexman
Community Leader
Community Leader

Hi cang & gs0b!

I need to start checking off the notifications box when posting on the forums. 😐

I know that Verizon is trying to distance itself from the old Bell System 🔔  infrastructure. Allowing old copper OSP to deteriorate in areas where FiOS is offered is but one step in the process.

I never had the opportunity to work on a 5E during my years as an IXC/CLEC C.O. technician. The company used DSC DEX 400, 600 & 600E tandems (hence my screen name) Nortel DMS-500s and Sonus soft switches.

The way I could tell that my POTS line was being moved started on the day of the upgrade when I lost dial tone and battery.

After the upgrade was over I tried calling the 700 LD test line as well as the ANAC for the C.O. Both calls were sent to treatment.

At that point I knew what had happened.

If Verizon is looking to fully walk away from its legacy switches (something I'm sad to see happen), its hampering efforts by continuing to omit swatches of areas from receiving FiOS services in towns/cities where it offers the service.

I imagine a day will come where Verizon might consolidate basic landline service for multiple towns into a single superswitch (similar to present tandem switch model).

To be continued. 🙂.

Re: ONT Upgrade Update.
dexman
Community Leader
Community Leader

Whoops! I forgot to mention gs0b's suggestions.

Thank you for reminding me about nomorerobo. Sadly, the bulk of the garbage calls I receive are from spoofed local working telephone numbers. There was even a time where I was receiving calls where the spammer was sending along my own telephone number with the Caller ID record! 😠

I have an Avaya Partner ACS here at the house. The auto attendant (along with some creative system programming) prevents almost all garbage from ringing my desk phone. I still have to flush out the junk Caller ID records through.

Until Verizon can get a handle on controlling spam calls, I'm not sure if Simultaneous Ring will be worth activating in my use-case. There was a time not that long ago when I was getting slammed with robocalls on my VZW mobile phone. That seems to have subsided as of late.

People who truly need to reach me have both of my numbers. 😊

Re: ONT Upgrade Update.
gs0b
Community Leader
Community Leader

@dexman wrote:

Until Verizon can get a handle on controlling spam calls, I'm not sure if Simultaneous Ring will be worth activating in my use-case. 😊


Yea, CallerID spoofing is a stain on the old Bell System.  SS7 designers never imagined untrusted hosts being able to connect to the system.  Given how well it's worked over the decades, I can't be too hard on them.  I doubt I would have foreseen a divestiture and the rise of IP based systems in the 70's, either.

Getting rid of the CallerID spoofing scourge will take SHAKEN/STIR to be implemented.  Since it's a non-revenue generating enhancement, I think we'll be waiting a long time for "telcos" to implement it.

As for the future of landline voice service, I'd put my money on Verizon moving to fixed wireless services built on 5G as they retire copper in areas not served by Fios.  Recall they tried fixed wireless after Sandy destroyed copper infrastructure, but had to backpedal due to how poor it worked on 3G/4G.  And remember that many people have completely given up on landlines, so the demand for fixed voice service is decreasing dramatically.  Verizon is acting like 5G will solve all problems.  Time will tell...

Re: ONT Upgrade Update.
dexman
Community Leader
Community Leader

Gotta love VoIP technology as it pertains to spoofing. Interestingly enough, spoofing could be done even before implementation of VoIP.

If my memory is correct, ISDN allows for WTNs to be manipulated by either the CPE or the C.O.

One trick that I thought of would involve looking up the originating telephone number in the LIDB, determine which carrier has responsibility for it, look up how a legitimate call originating by that number would be routed to the called number, check the actual route the call took and send to treatment any calls that deviate from the route.

So if someone overseas tries to call me by spoofing a telephone number that resides in the same C.O., but, the call comes in from a third party provider, the call would be sent to an intercept rather than be allowed to complete.

I think with SS7, if this scenario was workable, call processing delay would be minimal.

Today was a first. I received a spam call from Hawaii! 🏝

Re: ONT Upgrade Update.
dexman
Community Leader
Community Leader

Preliminary reports that I've seen paint a mixed bag for 5G (at least the variant utilized by Verizon). Good data speeds, but, less than stellar signal coverage.

Verizon has begun to pull fiber and install 5G antennas in my town. I suspect that this will be the method that the company is planning on utilizing to get around the outright reluctance to install FTP where it seems unfeasible.

Unfortunately, this would be too late for my church. Covid pushed us onto Zoom, and, Comcast stepped up while Verizon and RCN shook their heads.

The only upside for Verizon is that I insisted on keeping the POTS lines as is. With Verizon's cables being underground, they are protected from weather...thus we've had very little trouble with that service over the decades. 🙂