receiving, at a capacity checking engine, an electronic signal for a request of a customer inquiry for spare capacity in the video and data network from a customer requesting a service for the video and data network, wherein the request comprises a service area identifier corresponding to the customer;

identifying equipment to check for spare capacity from the service area identifier, wherein the equipment identified is used to provide the service to the customer on the video and data network;

determining if the identified equipment has spare data and video capacity using real-time information for the identified equipment in the network element inventory to determine physical or logical network elements that are available to provide service;

if the equipment has spare data and video capacity, calculating spare video and data capacity for the equipment based on the physical or logical network elements that are available to provide service, wherein the spare video and data capacity is used to provide the service to the customer, if desired; and

providing an answer, using the capacity checking engine, for the request for spare capacity while being connected to the customer during the customer inquiry, the answer based on the spare video and data capacity calculation.