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Getting a tour of your local Central Office

By Xenocide

Getting a tour of your local Central Office can be easy or hard depending on the type of
people running it, I will discuss a few methods you can use to go about this task. Before
you do anything, it would be a good idea to get some information on your local Central
Office own your own. Goto http://telecomtools.ccmi.com and they will tell you a lot about
your local Central Office. Such information includes what type of equipment is in use,
who makes it, what telco owns it, where its at, etc... Another place to get information
about your local Central Office is http://www.dslreports.com/coinfo.

CO Manager:
Getting a tour through the Central Office Manager is a guaranteed way to get a tour, if it
is at all possible to get one in your area by means other than using a lineman. Before you
can do anything, you of course need the CO Manager's phone number. You could get it by
calling your local Dist. Manager, Billing Office, Repair Office, or any other numbers like
that. It also might be possible to get it from the operator, but she may not know what
you're talking about. After you get the number, just call the CO Manager and (s)he should
be able to schedule a tour. If (s)he asks any questions like why you want the tour, just
tell him/her something like, you want to work for the telco someday.

The helpful lineman:
Getting a tour by means of a lineman will be a little bit harder than the first. Hang around
the Central Office a little, if you see a lineman, try to strike up a quick conversation and
tell him something like you want to be a lineman some day, then ask him if he could give you
a tour of the Central Office. Sometimes they will have a key and sometimes they won't. If he
is in a hurry just get to the point or find another lineman. If he doesn't have a key then
ask him if he can point you in the right direction of someone who could get you a tour.

In either case, use common sense and you should succeed. Sometimes telco employees can be
assholes or think its a waste of time to help you, but keep trying and you should get it.
Getting a tour is pretty cool, once you're there ask all the _reasonable_ questions you want,
just don't ask something like, "Can I use my blue box with this type of switch?" You should
learn a lot from the experience. Good luck and have fun!