Ohio's Basic Local Phone Service Alternative Regs
The Public Utility Commission of Ohio adopted rules on March 7 for alternative regulation of basic local phone service.  The rules comply with House Bill 218 which authorizes the Commission to either exempt from regulation or grant alternative regulation for basic local phone service in exchange areas where competition exists and there are no barriers to entry.

The new rules allow an ILEC, with an approved elective alternative regulation plan, to apply for pricing flexibility of basic local phone service and basic caller ID service. (For pricing flexibility eligibility details see http://www.puco.ohio.gov/puco/mediaroom/MediaRelease.cfm?doc_id=1772).

In each telephone exchange where an ILEC complied with the advanced services and Lifeline commitments of its elective alternative regulation plan and met at least one competitive market test, the company will be granted pricing flexibility of basic local phone service, basic caller ID service and tier 1 non-core services. If the company proves that competition exists in the requested telephone exchange, basic local phone service and basic caller ID service may be lowered or raised upon making a filing with the Commission. The price increase for these services will be limited to no more than $1.25 per year for basic local phone service and $0.50 per year for basic caller ID service.

ILECs granted pricing flexibility must continue to offer basic local phone service to all customers and provide notice to affected customers 30 days prior to rate changes.

Deadline Expiration Opens Door for Verizon
An FCC deadline to grant or deny a Verizon petition dating back to 2004 requesting exemption from rules governing special access lines expired March 19. The petition was "deemed granted by order of law" under FCC operating procedures. The exemption lifts restrictions on what Verizon can charge for high speed data services and allows the company to set prices for businesses and local phone companies who require use of its network.

Commission members were split about the exemption. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate supported the exemption citing the promotion of broadband deployment as one of the FCC's highest priorities. Commissioner Michael Copps called the approach suspect and said it jeopardized Congressional policies. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein opposed the move echoing Copps policy concerns and said it raised the specter of price hikes and limited choices for businesses and consumers.  Statements by the Commissioners are available at http://www.fcc.gov.

Verizon pledged that it would continue paying Universal Service Fund fees on its enterprise revenues in a February letter to the FCC.

Since no order was issued by the FCC, the impact of the petition is unclear. Court challenges are expected.

Sprint Launches IP Voice Connect
Sprint has introduced a new VoIP solution for enterprise customers. IP Voice Connect enhances user connectivity and simplifies network complexity by combining voice and data communications on a single IP network while securely supporting integrated and next generation applications.

Local and long distance services as well as PBX and traditional Centrex features are offered over Sprint's Dedicated IP or Global MPLS network. Secure carrier-grade service is enabled by Lucent Technologies Hosted VoIP Solution for Enterprises through its Global Network Operations Centers. It can replace or integrate with customer premises-based telephony systems.

Sprint IP Voice Connect allows enterprises to take advantage of SIP-based VoIP capabilities while still leveraging current investments in legacy voice systems. Existing dialing plans and telephone numbers are used simplifying implementation. Sites or individual users can be migrated one at a time allowing for a scalable implementation. Features include simultaneous ringing to multiple phones, unified messaging and abbreviated dialing. Company administrators can manage and configure accounts and manage virtual dial plans on demand with a full-featured web-based administrator portal.

The service is available in most major metropolitan areas.

Azure Solutions Partners with Teradata
Azure Solutions announced a partnership agreement with Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation. This agreement combines the Teradata Warehouse with Azure's Certo 2.0 revenue assurance software to help telecommunications firms reduce revenue leakage and utilize data collected during the revenue-assurance process.

This partnership addresses the need for carriers to improve their revenue assurance programs and better manage growth in operational network data. Azure's Certo 2.0 revenue-assurance platform allows carriers to monitor and correct revenue leakage problems on their networks in real time. Teradata's enterprise data warehouse builds an end-to-end view of subscriber usage transactions and analyzes data with the latest integrated tools.

"With Azure's Certo 2 and Teradata's linearly-scalable database platform, customers are able to process billions of call detail records (CDRs) per day. Operators can now store, retrieve and better analyze the data they collect from their revenue assurance initiatives," said Tony Samuels, Teradata Communication, Media & Entertainment Industry vice president.

Verizon's New SLAs and Voice Quality Measurement
Verizon Business is offering new service-level agreements (SLAs) for its Managed IP PBX services featuring a commitment that Managed IP PBX issues will be resolved in three and a half hours or less. The company is extending other service-level commitments to its Managed IP PBX customers including up to 100 percent platform availability and proactive notification of an issue within 15 minutes or less. The SLAs also consist of a credit pay out of up to 100 percent of the monthly recurring charge for missed metrics averaged over a month. 

Verizon Business is using a qualitative measure known as Mean Opinion Score (MOS) that looks at the end-user's voice-quality experience. The SLA guarantees an average MOS score up to 4.0. Users can compare this to other IP Telephony providers that typically do not offer voice quality service-level commitments based on MOS scores.

Customers can view near real-time performance of their managed networks through the Verizon Business customer portal to better identify and resolve performance problems.

Seventh Year AT&T Connecticut's Customer Complaints Drop
The Consumer Service Scorecard from Connecticut's Department of Public Utility Control shows that the number of customer complaints to the former SBC (now AT&T) Connecticut has dropped for a seventh straight year. Customer complaints have dropped each year for a decline totaling 82 percent. For 2005, the company averaged 16.75 complaints per 100,000 lines, under two hundredths of one percent.