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lapavoniFlag for United States of America

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Difference between "regulated" and "non-regulated" fiber internet circuit.

Greetings. AT&T is offering us a very good deal on high-speed business fiber.  Their sales rep e-mailed me the following:

"Now when you do have a conversation with your building manager, please assure him that the fiber that AT&T will be installing is the non-regulated fiber that is used similar to AT&T's Uverse service.  Highlight the fact that it is the "non-regulated" fiber circuit."

Can someone shed some light on what the difference between a "regulated" and "non-regulated" fiber circuit is ?  I have no idea.  The rep said something about "regulated" fiber going through a building riser company and that the other tenant in the building also had a non-regulated installation.  They are on the 2nd and 3rd floors.  We are on the 4th.   Is it just installed differently ? Safer ?

The service is symmetric fiber with a 4-hour SLA. and a small pool of static IPs.   I presume it's business-class service.

Thanks much.
-Stephen
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Dave Baldwin
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Non-regulated means it is not public carriage.   Different that the copper phone lines that are delivered to the building's MPOE.  The building manager would have no access to the fiber service, the box in the MPOE, or be able to tax or mark-up ("management fee") any of the services coming in.

Essentially, the AT&T rep wants to make clear that this is a private circuit brought in for only the customer.
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Ah, ok.  So since AT&T is offering installation with the service, that's why they won't use a "building riser company", but will install themselves into existing conduit, yes ?
If there is existing conduit with innerduct that meets their specs, then their install guys can use it to pull fiber to your MPOE or extended MPOE...or wherever the contract says they'll hand off to you.

If new conduit/duct is required to meet their install specs, then you can pay them to contract out that work.  Or, the building might mandate they handle the work, along with a 15% management fee.

I'm not sure why the rep was stressing you to tell the building management that the line is non-regulated.  Was the management arguing about the MPOE or handoff location?  Or were they asking for a management fee?
My impression is that the building paid private contractors to get the fiber pulled to the other tenant who resides on both floors 2 and 3.  I initially spoke with the building maintenance guy and he started the process to get me a quote for fiber to be pulled to the 4th floor.  When I mentioned that AT&T offered to do it for free, his ears perked up and he said "wouldn't it be wonderful if they could finish floor 1 for free also."  When I introduced the building maintenance manager to the AT&T rep, I  mentioned everything the AT&T guy said.  I sent another e-mail to AT&T asking for clarification of what "free installation" means.  The response is above.  He said "yes, completely free", providing it's "non-regulated" fiber.

My sense is that the building is not mandating that they do the work or charge us a maintenance fee, but that's a very good question. I'm not 100% sure.  If AT&T can get fiber from the Telco closet in the garage up to the 4th floor, then over to our server room (about 50 feet from the Telco closet on our floor to our server room), without charging us for the installation, why would I want to pay a third party to do it ?

If AT&T installs the fiber all the way to our server room, then they are responsible for all points in between the fiber switch in the garage and our server room, yes ?
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aleghart
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Excellent information. Thank you much.