CO Technician

General Summary

The Central Office Technician I is responsible for installation, maintenance and troubleshooting of digital Central Office (CO) equipment and facilities; tests, analyzes and evaluates equipment.

• Installs and maintains digital CO equipment and transmission facilities; assists in installation, servicing and removal of CO facilities.
• Repairs and provides preventive maintenance on CO power supply equipment, including rectifiers, standby generators and batteries, ringing machines and distribution panels and fuses.
• Tests, maintains and evaluates performance of all other CO equipment, such as subscriber line equipment, Nortel CS1500 switching gear and common equipment, trunks leaving and entering central office and billing and traffic metering equipment; ensures operation of transmission facilities and associated equipment including voice frequency repeaters, carrier systems, electronic telephone equipment, fiber transport equipment, line equipment and trunk facilities.
• Performs acceptance tests on new equipment; oversees the daily checking of toll, EAS, other types of trunks and alarm reporting systems.
• Assists in preparation of plans and specifications and other data for additional equipment or upgrades; follows routine procedures and ensures that routines are performed on all carrier, fiber and toll circuits; records the results of routines and acceptance tests; performs regularly scheduled standby duties.
• Ties cross-connections needed to establish, modify or terminate telephone service; coordinates with connecting companies when necessary in establishing, maintaining and removing special circuits, such as FX lines, broadcast circuits and data transmission facilities.
• Coordinates with the Network Manager and VP of Plant & Operations on the evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of various carriers, fiber optic, toll and transmission systems when the company investigates possible upgrades and system additions; plans and schedules installations to meet system deadlines.
• Assists in the installation, maintenance and support of microwave radios and alarm systems; works closely with subsidiary and supplier personnel to turn up and maintain new systems.
• Receives and analyzes trouble reports; records and forwards traffic metering usage data; forwards all recorded billing data to commercial or finance departments.
• Repairs and provides preventive maintenance for service assistance; performs related duties, such as building and installing support structures for power supplies and cable.
• Completes and submits all related records for CO and plant equipment.
• Performs all major emergency repairs as required, using knowledge of electrical circuitry and its applications and understanding of all CO and carrier equipment and its direct application to system outside plant, both buried and aerial.
• Installs subscriber carrier systems and related equipment; makes acceptance and lineup tests; clears trouble in carrier equipment.
• Establishes efficient CO and transmission facilities record-keeping system; prepares various reports, transmission and trunking including fiber optic and carrier transmission facilities analysis for the Network Manager, progress reports on job, work orders and maintenance forecasts.
• Installs and maintains data equipment and modems, four-wire circuits and automatic toll ticketing equipment.
• Coordinates with finance, commercial and other departments on service installations; requisitions materials and supplies as needed and maintains adequate inventory levels.
• Provisions, maintains and troubleshoots switching/transmission equipment.
• Keeps records updated on all circuits.
• Performs work with the awareness of all potential hazards connected with the installation and maintenance of CO power supply equipment, CO switching gear and other CO equipment, including but not limited to falls, electric shock, falling objects and traffic; uses safety equipment and utilizes safety practices; attends and participates in all designated cooperative safety and training meetings.
• Complies with all RUS specifications, industry standards, safety rules and regulations and company policies and…