Help understanding T1 / ISDN lines

I have a couple real beginner's question:

When you have a T1 line installed, is the line from you to the phone company (and thus to anyone on earth) or from you to a specific second point (i.e. to a specific ISP) Can you chose any ISP to provide the actual T1 service, local or non-local? Are there any "long distance" fees associated with a T1 if your ISP is a long way away?

Now how about an ISDN line? Do you pay "long distance" fees if your ISDN ISP is non-local?

In the northwest (US) we're paying about $1200 USD / month for 1 T-1 line. Instal fees can range (free on promotions, $1500 normally). Your LEC (local exchange carrier) provides the T-1 in all cases (so if your local phone company was Qwest, they'd be the only ones providing T-1 lines in your area). Companies like AT&T can re-sell these T-1s (sometimes cheaper), so you can place an order through AT&T and they'd have qwest come out and install the T-1 on their behalf. The ISP would be AT&T in this case (because you came to them for service). You couldn't use AOL for instance, because the line is provisioned by AT&T. You couldn't then switch your ISP to qwest in the future either - you'd have to get another T-1 put in by qwest to use them as an ISP (because AT&T 'owns' the other line).

Hope that gave you some insight....

When you install a T1, it would usually be through (arranged by) the ISP.

Your local phone company will setup a T1 access circuit (local loop) from you to their exchange. Your circuit will then be routed over their infrastructure to the ISP, where it is handed off, either as a T1, or more likely an aggregated T3 circuit.

For a full circuit 3 charges are incurred. It is dependent on the providers how they make this visible but they are;

2 x local loop charges based on the distance of Point A and Point B from the nearest exchange node.

Network charge - for running over the carrier network, If point A and Point B are on the same exchange node, this may be low or 0.

Obviously all charges are scaled by the distance (A to exchange, exchange to exchange, echange to B).

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