Nemont Telephone Tackles Fiber Cuts with a Superior Monitoring Platform

Russell Foster and Allison Wang
CO Technicians
Nemont Telephone Cooperative

Nemont Telephone Cooperative, Inc. (Nemont) was organized in 1950 by people in rural areas wanting telephone service. Today, its services include cellular, local, long-distance, internet, and cable TV. Nemont has been recognized in the national media for its deployment of broadband technology in rural areas.

Allison Wang and Russell Foster are Central Office Technicians for Nemont Telephone. They recently shared their thoughts about monitoring their company's network.

"T/Mon is so much better than the system we had before. It saves time just having it."

The current monitoring system at Nemont was deployed in 2006. When choosing which equipment to purchase, Nemont looked to another trusted company for advice. Vision Net provides after-hours monitoring services for Nemont's network. "Vision Net started monitoring for us," Wang said. "They had the DPS monitoring system in place, so we mirrored what they had. We monitor from 8 to 5. After hours, Vision Net has a schedule where they take over."

In the 10 years she's worked in the NOC center, Wang has seen multiple monitoring systems. "We purchased T/Mon and NetGuardians in 2006," she said. "T/Mon is so much better than the system we had before. It saves time just having it. Fewer things were alarmed into the old system. With what we have right now, we see various pieces of equipment, including Calix and AFC."

"And the DMS-10, the DSU, everything," Foster added.

Even as it displays alarms locally, T/Mon can forward alarms to a higher-level master station. This function protects Nemont's network outside normal business hours. "Our T/Mon is forwarding 24 hours a day so, after hours and during lunches, Vision Net can watch our back." said Wang.

After attending a recent DPS Factory Training session, Wang was pleased to learn that T/Mon NOC can monitor a wide range of inputs. "My supervisor wanted to monitor generators and fuel levels, and that's something new that I didn't realize we could monitor. I'm bringing that back from Training."

To display these and other data, Wang looks forward to using T/GFX geographic map software. "A couple of our technicians started working on T/GFX," she said. "I'm hoping we'll be able to use it in our NOC.

While visiting DPS Telecom Headquarters for a week of training, Foster and Wang's overall experience was positive. "I hadn't done anything with the T/Mon before Training," Foster said. "It worked out well: good teacher, friendly people. Everybody was friendly."