Meeting the future

When you think about companies that have been in business for over a century, what adjectives come to mind? Old? Stodgy? Set in their ways?

Think again. To stay successful for more than 100 years, a company must be progressive, flexible and constantly looking ahead. Consolidated Communications Inc. is one such company that has remained competitive by installing the latest operations support systems (OSSs) to provide its data services customers with the highest quality service.

The company began in 1894 as the Mattoon Telephone Co. in Illinois. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, Mattoon Telephone eventually became Illinois Consolidated Telephone Co. ICTC now serves more than 81,000 customers in 37 exchanges and ranks as the 26th largest telephone company in the United States.

Divestiture gave Independent telephone companies such as ICTC the opportunity to offer customer services previously available only through Bell regional holding companies. To take advantage of this opportunity, CCI was formed in 1984 with ICTC as its nucleus. CCI comprises several telecommunications businesses, including local, long-distance, private-line, mobile, directory, operator and telemarketing services. Some of the fastest growing segments of the company are long-distance, directory and telemarketing.

Growing Pains As proof of CCI's tremendous growth, the company posted $6 million in sales five years ago but this year will break $75 million on the interexchange carrier side alone. A great deal of this new business is providing data and voice services to both commercial and carrier customers.

As new customers rolled in, technicians in the network operations center (NOC) tried to keep up with remote testing using a system that no longer met their needs. The old system had a single test access that technicians had to share.

Technicians also lacked the test capabilities to support advanced services. These limitations began costing the company because it had contracts with customers that specified critical response times. If these response times were not met, the customers demanded compensation.

Thus, CCI managers began their search for new OSSs for remote testing and performance monitoring. Another factor that influenced CCI's choice was that the company had an embedded base of other vendors' remote test units and was leery of going to yet another OSS provider to integrate the different remote test units.

With that in mind, CCI managers checked with their peers at other carriers. They asked what systems other companies were using and how those systems met the needs of their users. What they found were the React 2001, Protocol Vital Signs and PM Integrator systems from Hekimian Laboratories Inc. In November 1994, CCI placed an order for all three systems.

New OSSs Beginning in January 1995, CCI switched over from its previous remote testing system to the React 2001 system. The switch involved installing a new computer and X terminals at CCI's NOC in Chesterfield, Mo. At the same time, CCI began installing Hekimian's Model 6351 protocol vital signs analyzers, Model 6700 digital remote test units and eDTAU enhanced DS-1 test access units at its remote locations. In CCI's long-distance network, the React 2001 system operates with the protocol vital signs logical test system and with remote test sets and access systems from a variety of vendors. Figure 1 shows the test system components of the company's X.25 packet switch test/alarm network.

CCI also installed the PM Integrator system, replacing another vendor's performance monitoring system that had never really become operational. The React 2001 and PM Integrator systems reside on the same IBM RISC System/6000 platform. The PM Integrator system collects performance monitoring data from the access units and from CCI's Tellabs Titan 3/1 digital cross-connect system. CCI estimates that the systems are currently testing and monitoring about 2400 T-1 lines, and the company expects that number to continue to grow rapidly.

NOC technicians feel comfortable that the test results they now see are realistic. Because they can rely on the results from the current systems, the technicians are more likely to use these tools repeatedly to keep customers' circuits operating smoothly.

Performance monitoring has enabled CCI's NOC to take a more proactive approach to troubleshooting. Technicians can tell when a circuit is in trouble before the situation becomes critical. They can then schedule that circuit for downtime and test it at a time agreeable to the customer.

The telco provides less interruption to the customer and can take a circuit down when the customer wants it down instead of letting it go down on its own and then having to work to get it back on-line.

CCI's NOC has become more efficient because of its new tools. Upper-level managers value the fact that with the new OSSs, the NOC work force has not grown even though the customer base (and the number of trouble reports) has grown.

The NOC is a nonstop environment, but with the new systems, CCI is able to satisfy its increasing numbers of customers without adding substantial overhead charges.

The NOC acts as a technical training center to teach people about the telco's network. The company prefers to promote from within, so experience in the NOC is a stepping stone for employees to move on to other areas of the company. The system's graphical user interface and on-line help make it easy for testers to learn the system and to become productive quickly.

Training is easier as well. New employees with a technical background but with no remote testing experience can be productive after just two or three days.

In the telecommunications industry, and especially in the highly competitive long-distance market, relatively small companies like CCI need to provide the same quality of service and support that the major long-distance carriers offer.

By rolling out advanced services as customers demand them and by using an advanced remote physical and logical test system combined with performance monitoring for proactive maintenance, CCI has the tools to continue meeting the future head-on.

David Schroeder is Manager of Network Operations for Consolidated Communications Inc., Chesterfield, Mo.