The following is from Jim Carefoot, Chesilvale Electronics:

There are three main GTE Northwest serving areas that could be considered "Kirkland area" - Kirkland (NXX 827, 822, etc. main C.O. downtown across from the marina), Redmond (NXX 883, 885, etc. main C.O. on 148th Ave) and Bothell (NXX 486, 488, etc. main C.O. downtown near the 522 park and ride). They are 5ESS switches and each has important remote wire centers. My house is served by the Kirkland-Juanita remote switch (NXX 821, 823, etc.) at the Juanita C.O. near NE 132nd and 100 Ave N.E. My office is served from a Bothell remote (NXX 482, 487, 806) near the freeway at Canyon Park where we presently get ISDN BRI. We get good, reliable POTS and ISDN service from GTE NW and GTE Internet Services. We have been offered GTE ADSL at our Bothell office near the 195th exit to I405, though newspaper maps didn't show the area was covered. The Redmond exchange area should be well covered since it serves Microsoft. GTE is no doubt deploying DSL access equipment based on demand and it should be spreading. I don't know about Kirkland Main or Juanita.

Telcos like to keep their switching and transmission assets low profile for various reasons, but I don't think they consider location or type a real secret. Much of that information is available if you dig for it. Clusters of trucks aren't always an indicator of a C.O. (e.g., Totem Lake), but a blank-looking brick or concrete building with one or two telco trucks and several personal vehicles is a giveaway. The locations of service-critical items like frame relay switches, DSLAM equipment and major fiber nodes are more sensitive and can be in places you wouldn't expect. Where and when they deploy DSL is no doubt competitive information. I know Electric Lightwave recently plowed fiber through our office park.

Last modified: June 12, 2001