BEFORE THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C

Transcription

1 BEFORE THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C In the Matter of Connect America Fund WC Docket No A National Broadband Plan for Our Future GN Docket No Establishing Just and Reasonable Rates for Local WC Docket No Exchange Carriers High-Cost Universal Service Support WC Docket No Developing a Unified Intercarrier Compensation CC Docket No Regime Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service CC Docket No Lifeline and Link-Up WC Docket No COMMENTS OF NORTH COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS CORP. IN RESPONSE TO CENTURYLINK, INC. PETITION FOR LIMITED WAIVER INTRODUCTION Pursuant to Public Notice DA , North County Communications Corp. ( NCC submits its comments regarding the CenturyLink, Inc. ( CenturyLink, f/k/a Qwest petition for limited waiver of call signaling rules ( Petition. CenturyLink has not demonstrated good cause for the requested waiver, and thus, the Commission should deny the Petition. DISCUSSION In its Petition, CenturyLink requests that it be exempt from transmitting charge number ( CN or calling party number ( CPN via MF signaling. Pet. at 6-8. CenturyLink s Petition falls well short of demonstrating technical infeasibility. Instead, CenturyLink posits summarily

2 that the transmission of CN and CPN is technically infeasible where MF is utilized. Id. CenturyLink provides no affidavits from its in-house switch experts to describe why compliance is technically infeasible. In addition, CenturyLink provides no documentation about its switches or what capabilities exist for complying with the new rules. Furthermore, CenturyLink provides no declarations from its switch manufacturers to support claims of technical infeasibility. In short, CenturyLink creates from whole cloth an excuse of technical infeasibility. In a recent interconnection agreement arbitration, in which NCC sought delivery of ANI over its MF interconnection trunks, CenturyLink (then Qwest claimed technical infeasibility but admitted that it never discuss[ed] its switches capabilities with its switch manufacturers representatives. See NCC Post-Hearing Exceptions Brief, In the Matter of Qwest Corporation s Petition for Arbitration and Approval of Interconnection Agreement with North County Communications Corporation of Arizona, Ariz. Corp. Comm n, Docket Nos. T-01051B and T-03335A , at 3, n.7 (citing Arbitration Transcript, 53:17-25, 54:1-9 (a copy of that page of the Exceptions Brief is attached hereto as Exhibit A. Exacerbating matters, Qwest refused to provide NCC with names and telephone numbers of its switch manufacturer technical representatives. NCC knows that ANI can be transmitted over MF interconnection trunks because it has done so with another LEC that uses Northern Telecom DMS switches. In addition, NCC contacted Lucent, which confirmed that ANI could be delivered over MF interconnection trunks with no switch modifications. See Lucent January 22, to Todd Lesser (a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit B. Although the Commission recognizes the validity of MF signaling and the importance of providing ANI, CenturyLink refuses to send or receive ANI over MF interconnection trunks, 2

3 despite the fact that CenturyLink provides ANI via MF signaling on long distance (e.g., FGD trunks to IXCs and 911 trunks. Accordingly, it is inaccurate for CenturyLink to claim that it cannot transmit ANI, CN or CPN via MF signaling. Moreover, CenturyLink claims it cannot retransmit ANI, CN or CPN from MF carriers to carriers using SS7 signaling; however, that inability is CenturyLink s responsibility because it refuses to accept ANI from MF carriers. NCC is flummoxed by CenturyLink s continued efforts to bury its head in the sand where MF signaling and ANI are concerned. 1 CONCLUSION Without supporting documentation, CenturyLink has failed to demonstrate good cause. Accordingly, the Commission should deny the Petition. At the very least, the Commission should reject the Petition and require CenturyLink to refile with adequate supporting documentation so that interested parties can comment on substantive issues and not on theoretical, unsupported statements. Respectfully submitted, Dated: February 29, 2012 _/s/r. Dale Dixon, Jr. R. Dale Dixon, Jr. Law Offices of Dale Dixon 7316 Esfera Street Carlsbad, California ( dale@daledixonlaw.com Attorneys for North County Communications Corporation 1 NCC even offered its switch experts to Qwest to configure the switches to send ANI over MF signaling. 3

4 1 to which the carrier provides interconnection. 4 Qwest currently offers IP interconnection on a 2 wholesale basis to businesses and even to residential customers. 5 Through VoIP, Qwest can offer 3 up to 46 voice lines per T1, compared to only 24 voice lines per T1 if NCC interconnects with 4 Qwest using SS7. 6 That distinction shows that Qwest engages in discriminatory interconnection and forces competitors to take and provide services inferior to those offered by Qwest. The Final Recommendation ignores the clear discrimination and points only to the absence of competing contract language III. THE PROPOSED CAP ON BILLABLE MINUTES IS ARBITRARY, UNLAWFUL, PREJUDICIAL AND INCONSISTENT WITH PUBLIC POLICY. The Final Recommendation adopts Qwest s proposed cap of 400,000 compensable minutes of use that it will pay to NCC for terminating Qwest s calls to NCC where such termination employs MF signaling. Qwest asserts that the cap is due to its inability to verify calls and billing sent via MF signaling because Qwest verifies calls and billing using its SS7 records. That argument should fail because Qwest has not demonstrated that its switches cannot be programmed to obtain all necessary call information from NCC. For instance, Qwest has not discussed with its switch manufacturers how to effect a programming change. Instead, Qwest refused to comply with NCC s discovery requests and limited its communications with its switch manufacturers to obtaining a list of the manufacturers legal representatives. 7 In addition, the argument should fail because the Federal Communications Commission ( FCC recently recognized the widespread use of MF signaling and is in the process of developing rules to would address Qwest s concerns by requiring carriers that use MF signaling 22 to transmit calling number information. 8 The Commission should not take action in this Comm. Reg. (P & F 202 (Or. Dist. Ct Lesser Reply Testimony, Exhibit 6. 6 Id. 7 Arbitration Transcript ( Arb. Tr., 53:17-25; 54:1-9 (admitting that Qwest did not discuss its switches capabilities with its switch manufacturers representatives. 8 See In the Matter of Connect America Fund, A National Broadband Plan for Our Future, Establishing Just and Reasonable Rates for Local Exchange Carriers, High-Cost Universal Service Support, Developing an Unified Intercarrier Compensation Regime, Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, Lifeline and DOCKET NOS. T-01051B AND T-03335A NCC S EXCEPTIONS TO FINAL RECOMMENDATION

5 From: Todd Lesser Subject: Fwd: switch question Date: January 22, 20119:19:00 AM PST To: Dale Dixon Begin forwarded message: From: "Navone, Thomas J (Thomas" <1:homas.navone@alcatel-lucent.com> Date: January 22,201109:10:23 PST To: Todd Lesser <1:odd@nccom.com> Cc: "Williams, Timothy J (Tim" <1:im.j.wil!iams@alcatel-lucent.com> Subject RE: switch question Good Morning Todd - My name is Tom Navone and as Tim mentioned below I will be supporting California from an Alcatel-Lucent Sales perspective. I'm based out of Irvine, California. Tim received an answer from one of our Switch Engineers and the information is below: The statements below are false pertaining to the 5ESS Switch. I can't speak to the 4ESS but I doubt it is true in that case either. LNP feature SFID NP-APPEND BAF MOD 164 W/CHARGEABLE ACCOUNT NUMBER TO CNA RECORD (99-5E NP-APPEND BAF MOD 164 W/CHARGEABLE ACCOUNT NUMBER TO CNA RECORD (99-5E S.1 Description The NP - Append Mod 164 with Chargeable Account Number to CNA AMA Record feature (99-SE-7304 was developed in two separate phases. In phase 1, all CNA BAF AMA CC720 base records populate Table 13 and 14 of Structure Code 0625 using the following: With OFID 719 inactive, the following will be recorded: "Record the SS7 CHG or MF ANI jf received. "Record SS7 CPN if the SS7 CHG or MF ANI are not available and the SS7 CPN was received. *Record the Trunk Group BN if the SS7 CHG or MF ANI and the SS7 CPN are not availab.!e and the Trunk Group BN was received. With OFID 719 active, the following will be recorded: *Record Trunk Group BN populated. In phase 2, the switch provides a recent changeable parameter on a trunk group basis, an option for recording of a Chargeable Account Number in an appended BAF Module 164 for CNA records. [f the CNA Module 164 Option is set to YES on a trunk group, and all other conditions for recording a CNA record are met, then EBAF Module 164 is appended and populated as follows: *Record the SS7 RN if the call has been forwarded two or more times and the RN is received. "Record the S87 OCN if the cal! has been forwarded once and the OCN is received and the RN is unavailable. *Record the SS7 CPN if received and the SS7 RN and SS7 OCN are unavailable. *Record the SS7 CHG or MF ANI if received and the SS7 RN, SS7 OCN, and SS7 CPN are unavailable. If none of the SS7 parameters are received, then no module 164 will be appended to the CNA AMA SC In phase 2, the base CNA BAF AMA CC720 base records wi!! populate tables 13 and 14 of Structure Code 0625 using the following: With OFID 719 inactive, the following wi!! be recorded: 'Record the SS7 CHG or MF ANI if received. *Record the SS7 CPN if received and SS7 CHG or MF ANI are unavailable. With OFID 719 active, the following wi!! be recorded: "Record Trunk Group BN if populated. [f you have any additional questions please contact me at any time. I look forward to working with you. Thanks! TJN Tom Navone A!catel-Lucent Sales Representative Mobile

6 Original Message----- From: Wliliams, Timothy J (Tim Sent: Thursday, January 20, :30 PM To: Todd Lesser; Navone, Thomas J (Thomas Subject: RE: switch question Todd, Good timing on your . I actually do not have sales responsibility for California any longer. I have copied Tom Navone who is actually right up the street from you in Irvine. I will shoot Tom an and let him know about some of the emahs that we have exchanged over the past couple of years and we'll get you the answers to your questions. Thanks! Tim Williams Sr. Sales Executive Alcatel-Lucent 933 N. Anglin St. Cleburne, TX tim.j.wijliams@alcatel-lucent.com -----Orlginal Message----- From: Todd Lesser [mailto:todd@nccom.com] Sent: Thursday, January 20, :59 PM To: Williams, Timothy J (Tim Subject: Re: switch question Our project is coming close to completion. Although,! had a question about the Lucent switches. Someone at Owest recently told me that the Lucent #4ESS and #5ESS don't have the ability to provide CDR (Call Detail Recording when trunks between two switches are configured as MF and not 3S7. They said they can only do peg counts on the number of calls. They can't tell how many minutes a cal! was or what number was dialed. I have never heard of a switch not having this basic capability. Second, I was also told that two switches can't send ANI to each other if the switches are configured with MF trunks. Are either of these things accurate? Thank you Todd Lesser Voice: FaJc todd@nccom.com