Telamon Provides Customized Product for AT&T
Carmel, Indiana - Telamon recently designed and built a Controlled Environment Vault (CEV) which had been commissioned by AT&T as part of Indiana's "Major Moves" project that is making road improvements in Carmel, Indiana. As US 31 is converted into a limited access highway around 146th Street, the plans require an off-ramp to be built from southbound US 31 to 146th Street that will cover an existing CEV which provides services for AT&T and its customers.
"While it has been eight years since Telamon built a CEV, AT&T understood our capability to revamp a discontinued product of this scale," explained Jeff Sharp, Telamon ESIS assembly supervisor. "Telamon was the logical choice because of our past experience with integrating CEVs for AT&T, our close proximity to the job site (Telamon is located less than five miles away), and our facilities which support CEV and similar structure integration."
"The project also allowed us to show our capabilities to other customers, which they might not have known about prior to this AT&T contract," Sharp said.
He added, "Another plus for Telamon was additional revenue that had been unanticipated when the budgets and forecasts were made last year. One of the major goals for Telamon's Technology Integration Group division has been to grow by generating additional revenue outside of our 'usual' work."
The CEV that Telamon built is approximately 20 feet long, eight feet wide and 10 feet tall inside. After being buried on site, a small access hatch remains above ground. The CEV contains electronic equipment that provides telecom and data services to Clay Terrace shopping center and the surrounding commercial buildings as well as long haul fiber equipment driving signals to and from Kokomo for their phone, video and data services.
Telamon started working on the project in mid-March to meet the June 6 set date. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has a strict timeline to complete their road projects, which means that AT&T needs to abandon the existing CEV by August. Telamon's work didn't stop upon delivery, though, pointed out Jeff.
"Meeting INDOT's deadline is still no trivial task as there were still two weeks of basic construction work around the CEV to make it functional after delivery," Sharp explained. "For instance, a permanent AC power pad has to be installed, a manhole dug to tap into the existing fibers and copper wire services, bridge cabinets installed, and the ground around the CEV filled in."
Once all of the above-ground items were complete and new cables were routed underground, there were still thousands of copper and fiber splices to be made and verified to make this a functioning replacement CEV for AT&T (about ½ mile of copper cable was used in the CEV).
"While we may not be involved in a CEV project on this scale again for a long time, there is potential for similar projects in other regions of AT&T because we did so well with this one," Sharp said.
About Telamon Corporation
Telamon is a value-added distributor of telecommunication products plus a global provider of integrated supply chain and technology deployment services. For more information, visit www.telamon.com.
1000 East 116th Street
Carmel, IN 46032
(317) 818-6888 TEL
(317) 818-6666 FAX
www.telamon.com
