FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NEWS MEDIA CONTACT: November 8, 2001 Michael Balmoris 202-418-0253 Email: mbalmori@fcc.gov FCC SEEKS TO ESTABLISH NATIONAL PERFORMANCE STANDARDS FOR TELECOM CARRIERS' WHOLESALE OPERATIONS Proposal Seeks to Provide Greater Consistency, Certainty and Clarity Washington, D.C. - Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began a rulemaking proceeding to establish a core set of national performance measurements and standards for incumbent local exchange carriers (LECs). The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeks to identify a list of key performance measurements and standards for evaluating an incumbent LEC's performance in provisioning wholesale facilities and services to competitors. The NPRM adopted today offers for comment a set of 12 specific performance measurements and seeks comment on related issues of implementation, reporting requirements, and enforcement mechanisms (the specific set of performance measurements is attached). With today's action, the Commission seeks to accomplish the following three goals: 1) Create certainty in the marketplace by providing all carriers with bright line guidance about whether an incumbent LEC has provided interconnection, collocation and access to unbundled network elements (UNEs) in a nondiscriminatory manner; 2) Reduce reporting costs and minimize regulatory burdens by streamlining, standardizing, and simplifying the potentially divergent federal and state regulatory requirements; and, 3) Establish specific enforcement policies or guidelines, including self- effectuating remedies for responding to violations of any national measurements and standards that the Commission adopts. -FCC- CC Docket No. 01-318 Action by the Commission, November 8, 2001, by Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 01-331). Chairman Powell, and Commissioners Abernathy, Copps and Martin, with Powell, Copps and Martin issuing separate statements Common Carrier Bureau Staff Contact: Cathy Carpino at 202-418-1580 News about the Federal Communications Commission can also be found on the Commission's web site www.fcc.gov. News media Information 202 / 418-0500 ================================================================================= TWELVE PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS Following are the 12 metrics the Commission has set forth for comment to measure an incumbent LEC's ability to provide pre-ordering, ordering, provisioning, repair and maintenance functions that competitors use to interconnect, collocate or obtain access to unbundled network elements. However, the Commission also requests comment on whether other measurements and standards would be more effective and less burdensome. Pre-Ordering Measurement ? OSS Pre-Order Interface Response Timeliness: Measures whether an incumbent's pre-ordering systems provide reasonably prompt response times. Order Measurements ? Order Notifier Timeliness: Measures the amount of time it takes an incumbent to send a notice either confirming whether an order placed by a competitor has been accepted and indicating the date on which the requested service will be provisioned (FOC Timeliness) or informing the competitor that an order has been rejected (Reject Timeliness). ? Order Completion Notifier Timeliness: Measures the amount of time between the actual order completion and the distribution of the order completion notice to the competitor. ? Percentage of Jeopardies: Measures the number of orders with due dates that receive advance jeopardy notices. Provisioning Measurements ? Percentage On Time Performance: Measures the percentage of competitive LEC orders that were provisioned on or before the scheduled due date. ? Average Delay Days on Missed Installation Orders: Measures the average amount of time by which an incumbent misses confirmed installation due dates. ? Installation Quality: Measures the percentage of completed orders for which competitive LECs file trouble reports with the first 30 days after completion of the order. ? Percentage Missed Appointment: Measures the number of missed customer appointments for competitors. ? Open Orders in Hold Status: Measures the percentage of circuits that are past the committed due date as of the end of the reporting period. Maintenance and Repair Measurements ? Trouble Report Rate: Measures the percentage of provisioned loops or circuits with troubles reported within a certain period of time. ? Repeat Trouble Report Rate: Measures the percentage of trouble tickets that are repeat trouble tickets, generated within a 30-day period. ? Time to Restore: Measures the mean time required by incumbents to restore services after a competitor files a trouble ticket.