VoIP: Installation

Thank you for choosing Lumen for your VoIP service. We want to provide you with excellent service, starting with a smooth installation. To help with your install, we will assign you a technical project coordinator (TPC) who will be your main point of contact while we install your service. We will also assign a system designer (SD) to help you program your new phones and train your employees.

Installation process steps are below. We will handle most tasks, but we will contact you through the installation to ask for information we need to set up your service.

New construction and general guidelines

If one of your locations is currently under construction, we will need electrical power at that location to proceed with installation. A permanent, grounded, three-prong electrical outlet is required. Extension cords do not meet this requirement.
Space requirements—you must designate wall mounts or rack mounts.
If wall-mounted CPE is desired, please provide an eye-level, 4'x4' fire-retardant ¾” plywood backboard.
Fiber builds and network builds may be necessary and will extend installation time frames.
You are responsible for all fiber optic or copper cables extending from the Lumen demarcation point to the termination point.
Entrance facilities must be in place to support a fiber build.
Conduit is the facility from the edge of your business property line to the negotiated (with Lumen) equipment location inside your building (i.e. demarcation point). It must be equipped with a 200-pound, calibrated pull string for the fiber cable. Details including (but not limited to) conduit type, size, quantity, and sweeps or bends will be provided by the Lumen network engineer during the site survey. He or she will determine whether the existing conduit structure is sufficient to support your service. The conduit running inside your building needs to be provided overhead or under the floor in a raised floor computer room environment. If your business is located in a building that is not owned by your organization, you need to work with your building owner/manager to provide the requirements listed so that Lumen can build your new fiber-based services.
An extended demark is required to get the T1 or Ethernet circuit within 10 feet of the router.
You ensure a minimum of CAT5e cabling with direct connections from end-user wall plate (including WAP locations) to patch panel. This is known as a home run and neither hubs, switches, or any other intermediary device is permitted between the end-user phone and POE switch.
Door buzzer/ring-down line—if you request a door buzzer or ring down line, it must be pre-approved prior to order acceptance.
Overhead paging—you are responsible for configuring your paging adapter to work with the FXO or FXS handoff from the analog terminal adapter (ATA). Pre-approval is required to determine the port type.
Faxing can be problematic if the transmission rate is higher than 14.4Kbps. It is recommended to leave faxing off VoIP if faxing is mission-critical to a business.
Alarm, elevator, sprinkler, and modem lines should be sold as POTS lines, not using an ATA. This is based on industry best practice and some alarm vendors and municipalities’ mandate keeping this on POTS service.

Location phone number

Please provide working phone numbers for every location. They are necessary for us to locate the building.

Local contact

We require a designated contact for each location we are installing. The contact must be physically present every day—Monday through Friday—during business hours at the service address and must be available by phone.

Technical contact

A technical contact who can answer detailed questions about your current network infrastructure for each location is required. Your IT contact should know:

What network equipment is used.
The desired configuration including IP addressing/connectivity, routers, and firewalls.

Your telecom contact should be familiar with the types of phones and where they will be located.

Number porting

A completed letter of agency (LOA) must be received to complete our installation. The following actions will help you successfully complete your LOA:

Provide a list of phone numbers that you would like to remain on your service. These numbers will be ported for you.
Remove PIC freezes from these numbers. We cannot port numbers with PIC freezes.
Provide a copy of your current service bill.
Ensure that ported numbers do not have DSL (high-speed Internet) on them or the internet service will be lost.
Pay your previous provider in full prior to porting your numbers. We cannot port unpaid accounts.
Disconnected numbers cannot be ported.
Porting timeline: 12–30 days based on total numbers to be ported.