ComptelPLUS Fall15 Show Daily Day 1

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COMPTELPlus | Monday, October 19, 2015 Beka Publishing, 18
COMPTEL Partners with NEF for Member-Only Discounts
COMPTEL PLUS Fall 2015 Business Expo
DAY 1
COMPTEL recently announced a partnership
with NEF (Booth 312), the data transport
and data center professional services firm,
in which the association’s member companies can
receive exclusive discounts on NEF’s FiberLocator
tool, the most up-to-date telecom network intelli-
gence and maps platform currently available, along
with specialized consulting services.
“As the data and connectivity needs of busi-
nesses and consumers increase exponentially, it
is imperative that COMPTEL’s member companies
have accurate and detailed information in order
to make important network investment decisions,”
said Alan Hill, COMPTEL’s senior vice president for
strategic business development. “By working with
NEF, COMPTEL is providing its members – particu-
larly small and mid-sized companies – access to
critical information and industry expertise.”
NEF’s FiberLocator tool provides users with a full
understanding of who the fiber providers are within
a given area, whether that’s between two points
or at a single location. Comprised of data from
hundreds of CLECs and facilities-based carriers, as
well as hundreds of thousands of lit buildings and
data centers, FiberLocator is the tool for network
planners looking to quickly and easily secure the
most up-to-date industry information. FiberLocator
is available as a subscription-based, software-as-a-
service (SaaS) tool and as an API, enabling users to
overlay fiber data in their own internal systems.
NEF also offers a combined century of
industry experience and a proven methodology
for providing its clients with the best networks,
information and pricing available. NEF provides a
broad spectrum of products from fiber mapping
to consulting, to procurement and project
management. Through our many partners and
carrier relationships, NEF designs custom connec-
tivity solutions and provides access to hundreds
of fiber providers and thousands of lit buildings
and data centers.
“NEF is extremely excited to work with
COMPTEL and its member companies,” said Steve
McCarthy, NEF’s COO. “We fully understand the
challenges and opportunities facing small and
mid-sized carriers, and look forward to developing
strong relationships with these companies to assist
them as they expand their network footprints.”
NEF will also host a panel entitled“Fiber Infra-
structure: Network Planning Strategies”here at the
conference, onTuesday at 11 a.m. in the Network
PlatformZone of the exhibit hall. The panel will focus
on network planning strategies that can be employed
when determining whether to invest in new network
construction, or maximize the value of existing infra-
structure to gainmarket share and reach. Whether
it is an indefeasible right of use (IRU), fiber swap,
real estate lease for a new data center or backhaul
services, network planners need to understand all the
options that may be available in a givenmarket.
INDATEL Data Added to
FiberLocator
NEF separately announced that new data
from INDATEL (Booth 813) is now being added to
FiberLocator. INDATEL’s nationwide fiber footprint
and current lit building maps are now searchable
through FiberLocator’s online subscription service.
The database now has more than 300 carriers,
nearly 400,000 lit building records and more than
6,800 data centers.
“We are excited to be able to provide these 27
independent, rural telecommunications carriers
with an equal playing field to other nationally-
known providers,” said Steve McCarthy, COO at NEF.
“FiberLocator provides INDATEL’s member compa-
nies with visibility on a national scale, allowing
them to be seen by audiences that may have never
known of these local providers
Added Mel Wagner, vice president of busi-
ness development and sales for INDATEL services,
“Before our partnership with NEF, INDATEL member
companies’ network maps and lit building data had
never before been compiled into one searchable
database. Agents, enterprises and other carriers
can benefit from greater visibility into their fiber
footprints and have another avenue through which
to procure their services.” o
F airPoint Communications, which provides
communications technology in northern
New England, has expanded licensing
for the TeleLink usage analytics solution from
Nashville, Tenn.-based Equinox Information
Systems (Booth 703).
FairPoint’s use of the platform will now
include reports to comply with the FCC’s require-
ments for rural call completion reporting.
The TeleLink platform gives carriers access to
their usage data in an actionable way, allowing
them to perform in-depth analysis of individual
events, as well as network traffic trends for a
wide variety of business decisions. FairPoint has
been using TeleLink to generate a variety of ad
hoc reports, including requested subpoena data,
since originally licensing the system in 2013. They
will now also be able to collate and output the
FCC-required rural call report template directly
from TeleLink.
Equinox has been a vendor to FairPoint
Communications since 2008, when it first began
using Equinox’s fraud management system,
Protector. Based on their existing relationship
and support during the initial Protector project,
FairPoint contacted Equinox when looking to
replace a reporting system in 2013. At that time,
the company licensed the TeleLink solution
for its ability to retrieve, aggregate, summarize
and report upon usage data historically and in
real time, using the built-in reporting tools and
centralized data warehouse.
When the need for FCC compliance arose,
FairPoint turned once again to Equinox to create
the required summary and detail reports on rural
completion statistics.
“Based on the Protector implementation, we
knew Equinox turned out cost-effective solu-
tions that produced results,” said Tom Nolting,
vice president of financial operations at Fair-
Point. “More importantly, we experienced just
how serious the entire Equinox team took their
commitment to customers. As a result, we turned
to their team first for an advanced reporting
solution to meet our initial subpoena and subse-
quent compliance requirements.”
“At Equinox, we take great pride in our repu-
tation, which is built on a foundation of repeat-
edly exceeding customer expectations,” added
Equinox executive vice president DavidWest.
“Every member of the Equinox team is hard-
working and dedicated to helping our customer’s
businesses succeed. We are grateful for the
opportunity to serve FairPoint once again.” o
FairPoint Taps Equinox for
Usage Analytics
‘We knew Equinox
turned out cost-effective
solutions that
produced results.’
—Tom Nolting, FairPoint