BackUP Telecom Consulting is owned and operated by Mary Lou Carey, an independent consultant. Mary Lou established BackUP Telecom Consulting in February 2003, but has been working in the industry since 1997.   

Mary Lou received much of her network engineering training from Pacific Bell, where she worked as a Trunk Forecasting Supervisor in the Trunk Planning and Engineering (TPE) department. At Pacific Bell, Mary Lou was responsible for publishing the trunking forecast, managing capacity issues and coordinating the TPE projects relating to all Pacific Bell, CLEC, ILEC, IXC, Wireless, Paging and ISP trunk groups in the San Francisco and Santa Rosa tandem areas.  

Mary Lou also worked as a CLEC Consultant with RCC Consultants in Portland, Oregon, where she was instrumental in helping several new CLECs successfully establish their network from the ground up. Mary Lou provided her clients with AOCN / code administration, ASR Provisioning, Joint Planning, NRUF and Trunk Forecasting, and Project Management services. She also helped resolve translation problems and provided training and job aides to clients who took over their provisioning and code administration functions.   

Mary Lou received her bill audit training while working for RCC Consultants in Portland, Oregon. She has performed audits and negotiated settlements for universities, churches, businesses, individuals and CLEC clients. As a result of has attention to detail and resourcefulness, her clients have received substantial refunds on their telecom bills and significantly reduced their monthly telecom costs. Mary Lou recently joined ventures with BackUP Bill Management Services, owend by Karen Mitchell. Karen has worked in the accounting field for 20+ years and is very familiar with the audit process.

Over the years, Mary Lou acquired a wealth of knowledge in the fields of provisioning, code administration and bill auditing for CLEC customers. Having come from a long line of teachers, it just came natural for her to teach others what she has learned. Whether Mary Lou teaches a large class or does one on one training, she has a knack for adjusting the training material to the skill level of her students and making complex subjects seem simple.