Demarc Extension Nationwide has produced a set of tips and advice for cabling professionals dealing with the often complicated process of extending a facility's demarcation point. It aims its advice and services at telecom agents, and in this advice, the organization indicates it feels these agnets' pain. "As a telecom agent, you have dealt with demarc extensions before," the company says. "Even though the demarc extension is often trivialized, it is an important part of the service provided to your customer."
Several factors can delay circuit delivery, Demarc Extension Nationwide explains, and offers help to avoid such delays. "If the local access provider or the carrier is going to extend the service, confirm the conditions surrounding the agreement. Some requirements that may cause these issues are ceiling height, the need to use tall ladders or lifts, and installations involving core-hole drilling between riser closets. Many times the carrier or local access provider follows certain policies regarding these construction restrictions that can lead to a refusal to install the demarc extension."
Other pitfalls to watch out for include the following.
- The local access provider may not tag the POTS line with the phone number, leading to issues with future installations and a delay in circuit delivery.
- Access to multiple telecom rooms and other tenant spaces
- Coordination with the many parties involved - Carrier, local access provider, end user, solution provider, master agent or agent and demarc extension contractor
- Congested pathways and other challenges that the technician may face at the site
- The use of unmanaged and unskilled field technicians to install and test demarc extensions and circuits
In addition to tips and advice, Demarc Extension Nationwide offers free resources including definitions of terminology and diagrams of demarc extension types. (Click each term to access the resource from the Demarc Extension Web site.)
Demarc Extension Nationwide is a brand of Concert Technologies. It was developed as a provider of nationwide installation services and education of the demarc extension.
