CHAPTER 10.0 - Business Process Overviews

10.6 Collocation Process

Collocation is the process of locating CLEC equipment and facilities in BellSouth premises. There are two types of BellSouth collocation offerings: Physical Collocation and Virtual Collocation.

Physical Collocation is a negotiated service that offers installation of collocator-owned equipment and facilities on BellSouth premises floor space for the purpose of connecting to the BellSouth network. The collocator is solely responsible for the timing, alarming, monitoring, performance, maintenance, provisioning and repair of its installed equipment.

Virtual Expanded Interconnection Service (VEIS), or Virtual Collocation, is a tariffed service that offers placement of collocator-owned transmission facilities and equipment in BellSouth's central offices and the interconnection of this equipment to BellSouth's network services. BellSouth leases the equipment from the collocator and is responsible for the maintenance of the equipment.

Collocation begins when BellSouth receives the collocation application form from the CLEC. It is complete when a space acceptance meeting is conducted between the CLEC and BellSouth Representatives and the CLEC accepts the space. Early acceptance cases in which the CLEC has the ability to install its equipment prior to the completion of provisioning also exist.

Collocation can be divided into two distinct sub-processes:

Term Definition

Application: Application begins when the CLEC prepares and submits the collocation application form, with the appropriate application fees, and ends when the BellSouth Account Team Collocation Coordinator (ATCC) returns a full response to the application to the CLEC. The response includes an estimate of the cost to provision the arrangement. There is an intermediate milestone in which the ATCC responds to the CLEC regarding space availability.

Provisioning: Provisioning begins when the CLEC returns a Firm Order, including 50% of the estimated cost to provision the arrangement, to BellSouth and ends when the collocation arrangement has been accepted by both the CLEC and BellSouth. This sub-process consists mainly of the work required to prepare the BellSouth central office collocation space.

For more detailed information concerning the Collocation process, please refer to the Physical and Virtual Collocation section of this guide and to the Collocation Handbook at http://www.interconnection.bellsouth.com/reference_library/guides/html/collocation.html
Collocation

Term	Definition
Application:	Application begins when the CLEC prepares and submits the collocation application form, with the appropriate application fees, and ends when the BellSouth Account Team Collocation Coordinator (ATCC) returns a full response to the application to the CLEC. The response includes an estimate of the cost to provision the arrangement. There is an intermediate milestone in which the ATCC responds to the CLEC regarding space availability.
Provisioning:	Provisioning begins when the CLEC returns a Firm Order, including 50% of the estimated cost to provision the arrangement, to BellSouth and ends when the collocation arrangement has been accepted by both the CLEC and BellSouth. This sub-process consists mainly of the work required to prepare the BellSouth central office collocation space.