CUF Meeting Minutes
Conference Call: September 12, 2007
Changes of Interest
· Tom Delaney retired and Eli Diaz, who will be taking Tom’s place in the CUF, was introduced. Eli explained that he has Provisioning and Data Analysis responsibilities and is looking forward to working with our customers in the CUF. Eli can be reached at: . His telephone number is 973 649-5255.
· Chris Alston recently changed jobs at Verizon and will no longer be working with the CUF. Eli advised that he will provide necessary support personnel to replace Chris.
Web Site Enhancements
· The latest Verizon Partner Solutions Web Site enhancements were sent to the CLEC community on September 11th. Highlights include the following items:
o Contact Us: Escalation information has been updated for a number of centers including the PSCC and the RRSC.
o Training The Training Team has three workshops scheduled in September and October. Information and registration can be found on the Access Training page at: http://www22.verizon.com/wholesale/accesstraining/bridge/.
o Verizon encourages customers to continue to review the “Contact Us” section of the Verizon Partner Solutions (VPS) Web site for ongoing organizational changes.
Review of New Business and/or Issues
CUF Guideline Documentation Review
· Margaret Detch distributed the Guidelines draft to the CUF members on August 31st. She used the redlined version that Peggy Rubino (Paetec) forwarded to Verizon on April 2nd as her starting point. The updated draft addresses many of the concerns and points raised by both Verizon’s customers and Verizon during the discussions at the May CUF meeting.
· Margaret suggested using the time at the CUF meeting to ensure we are in agreement with the fundamental points and then she can work off line with either Mike or another member of the CUF to finalize the document.
· Mike Clancy (Covad) said he reviewed the Guidelines and nothing appeared to need editing. He encouraged the CLEC members to review the Guidelines and confirmed that he would work with Margaret if any additional changes were required.
Regional/Network Outage Notification:
As agreed to at the last CUF meeting, Sue Pistacchio provided the status on the new outage notification process being developed.
History
· Sue explained the project originated from the Access Collaborative Forum held early in 2007 where customers requested more information on network issues. Based on this feedback, Verizon created a draft process and began trialing it with a handful of access customers. The trial ran from 6/4/07 through 8/31/07.
· Customers that participated in the trial continue to receive notifications as the project is rolled into general availability. As several customers that participated in the trial also purchase local services including Cablevision, XO and Covad, the project expanded to include local customers as well as access customers.
Scope
· The objective of the new Network Outage Distribution Notification Process is to give customers a high level notice regarding a network issue that may impact them, such as a fiber cut or a fire in a central office.
· If the customer is experiencing any network trouble, the outage notification may help them in troubleshooting their issue.
· These notices are not meant to provide customer-specific information. The expectation is if the customer is experiencing a network issue and they believe the network outage may have something to do with it, they still are to follow the current process for investigation.
Next Steps
· Verizon is in the process of modifying the existing subscription process and plans to add Network Events as an option to the VPS web site. Within the next three to four weeks, this subscription tool will be in place and both access and local customers will be able to subscribe. Notification will go out advising carriers of the availability of the new process via multiple customer distribution lists.
· Based on feedback Mike Clancy provided at the July CUF meeting, Verizon is creating the capability for carriers to select regional areas that they would like to receive outage notification instead of state-specific notifications. State specific notifications would be more labor intensive internally and as weather related events could impact multiple states, regional area notification will eliminate customers receiving duplicate distributions of the same notice. Verizon polled customers and they liked the proposal to allow for six regions for selection which include:
Northeast Region – Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York
Mid-Atlantic Region – New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, West Virginia
Southeast Region –North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida
Midwest Region –Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio
Texas Region -Texas
West Region – Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Arizona
· Several customers who are participating in the trial gave feedback during the CUF meeting. Loriann Burke (XO), Chris Gambino (Cablevision), and Mike Clancy (Covad) all stated that the notification process is working well, and it is giving them the information that is needed when an outage occurs
New Issues
· There were no new issues.
Review of Open CUF Issues
#98 – NID Move Process Change Request:
This is a follow up to post the job aid on the Verizon Partner Solutions (VPS) Web Site explaining how to move a UNE DS1 NID due to construction.
· The job aid is completed and is currently being reviewed by our Legal Department. Verizon hopes to have it posted within a few weeks.
· The job aid will be located on the Partner Solutions Web Site under Access Job Aids.
· Information for UNE DS1 NID move requests in the West, (which are done with the issuance of a LSR) is already located on the VPS Web Site at the following link: http://www22.verizon.com/wholesale/local/order/services/?subID=buried-wire
· Loriann Burke (XO) mentioned that the Chesapeake area is not following the draft job aid (that was distributed in September 2006 to the CUF members) procedures for Special Access. Cathy Gorman explained that the Special Access procedures were removed from the job aid and a new process was provided by the Special Access Product Line Manager where the CLEC contacts their Account Manager who coordinates the move with the building owner and Verizon engineering. The Special Access procedures were included in the minutes from the July CUF meeting. Cathy requested that Loriann contact her if there were additional questions or concerns about the Special Access NID moves process.
#114-Porting of DIDs Riding on a PRI:
This issue from Cox Communications is a request for Verizon to provide porting/disconnect documentation with regards to DIDs riding on a PRI for the North and South.
· Verizon’s investigation revealed that when a request to port all the DIDs riding on a PRI is received, the PRI is disconnected in all the East states except MDVW. MDVW will not remove the PRI unless there is a remark on the order telling Verizon to disconnect it.
· It appears the process difference is partially due to the ordering/billing systems, which are unique for NY/NE, NPD, and MDVW. In the North, the NMC issues segmented orders to port the DIDs and to disconnect the PRI but the South does not have that capability. An example of a segmented order for NY is for D orders with the same order number and a suffix of -1, -2, -3, -4. For NY/NE orders and NPD orders that are now processed by the NY NMC, the PRI is disconnected if all the DIDs are ported. If the PRI is not to be disconnected, at least one active TN must remain in the pipe.
· In MDVW, the NMC that processes the order to port the DIDs will not disconnect the PRI unless there are instructions in the Remark field instructing Verizon to disconnect the PRI. The process in MDVW is to not assume that the PRI should be disconnected as some end users reuse the PRI, and it is a long process, six weeks or longer, to rebuild the PRI once it is disconnected.
· If no instructions are in the Remark field telling Verizon to disconnect the PRI in MDVW, the PRI will remain active and the end user will continue to be billed on a monthly basis for the PRI. If the end user is receiving a bill from Verizon for the PRI, the CLEC should advise the customer to contact the Verizon retail business office to disconnect the PRI.
· Ninfa Bennett (Cox) said that Verizon Retail refused to disconnect the PRI when their customer called and they had to escalate to get it disconnected. Cathy Gorman explained that future orders should include the instructions in the Remark field to disconnect the PRI. This will eliminate the need for the end user to then call the Verizon Retail Business Office. She also requested that Ninfa notify her if the situation, with Verizon Retail refusing to disconnect the PRI for their end user, continues.
· Verizon reviewed the examples from Cox and NTELOS which were all VA examples. In the first example from Cox, there was a remark requesting Verizon disconnect the PRI as well as port the DID numbers. An order to port the DID numbers and another to disconnect the PRI were issued and completed. The second example was not valid for this particular issue as the PON was received and cancelled on the same day. The example from NTELOS was an example of the condition where Verizon did port the DIDs riding on a PRI but did not disconnect the PRI as there were no instructions in the Remark field. As a result, the end user continued to be billed by Verizon for the facility until the end user called Verizon Retail to disconnect the PRI trunk.
· Verizon originally moved to close the issue. Based on discussion from the CLECs, Verizon agreed this issue should remain open until the procedure in MDVW to include instructions in the Remark Field to disconnect the PRI is documented on the VPS web site.
#115 – Release Ported Number DDD+6:
This issue was originally brought to the CUF in the March CUF Roundtable and introduced as a new issue at the May CUF meeting as a request to see if Verizon could change the LNP process from DD to DD +6. Sprint was looking for extra time to activate a number if their customer or the end user was not ready on the due date. Based on discussions at our last meeting, not all CLECs were amenable to that change.
Based on the concerns raised by both the CLECs and Verizon regarding associated billing issues, Mike Clancy suggested that Verizon accept this issue using the activation date as the trigger. Verizon accepted the issue and since has investigated whether Verizon could change its policy and what impact this change would have on systems and processes in order not to release the telephone number from our switch nor cancel the end user’s service until the New Service Provider sends an activate message to NPAC.
Verizon’s investigation included focused on three areas:
1. Researching the examples that Sprint provided where a SUP was sent on the due date to cancel the port, and the action could not be taken because it was too late on the Due Date.
2. Searching the LNPA Working Group website for documentation on when the Old Service Provider should remove the line from translations and for any other information pertinent to this issue.
3. Holding an internal meeting with Verizon SME’s to determine the scale and scope of the required operational and system changes to change the policy.
1. Review of Examples Submitted to the CUF
The investigation of the five samples did not support this issue of a CLEC not being able to issue a SUP on the due date. And, in fact, one example illustrated how the process outlined by the Local Number Portability Working Group actually works.
· Chris Gambino (Cablevision) advised that she has spreadsheets of examples where Cablevision issued SUP’s on the DD but the end user was disconnected anyway. Chris said that at one point the problem of disconnects had gotten so bad that they were having weekly calls with Verizon. Eli Diaz said he had spoken with Tom Thirsk about the issue and would follow up with him today. Chris said that the identified lines were being researched by Rich Morin, Tom Thirsk, and Bill Carney. She said they also experienced problems with premature disconnects when no SUP was issued and problems when no trigger was set.
· Open dialog continued on current operation issues CLECs are experiencing with LNP
· Margaret Detch requested CLECS bring their examples to the CUF so Verizon can research them and that we need to have all available examples so that we are able to pin down the source of the problem, i.e., process related, system related etc. The CUF team also needs to know who else within Verizon, if anyone, is working on the issue.
· Eli advised that will continue to work operationally on the issues that Cablevision raised.
· Lori Fredericksen (Integra) said that they also have many of the same problems and she will send her examples.
· Mike Clancy reminded the CLECs that if they have any examples of DD issues to put them on a spreadsheet and submit to CUF Mailbox. Note: The CUF mailbox address is: