Current through Register Vol. 18, September 20, 2024
(1) These rules
establish service quality requirements for facilities-based local exchange
carriers. The carrier shall be expected to meet generally accepted industry
standards for quality on any service provided by the carrier that is not
covered by these rules.
(2) Based
on commission receipt of increasing consumer complaints or other relevant
information about the level of service being provided by a carrier to which
these service quality requirements apply, the commission may require the
carrier to begin documenting its compliance with any or all of these service
requirements and providing periodic service quality reports containing such
documentation to the commission. If a carrier is required by the commission to
provide records or documentation regarding its compliance, the records or
documentation must be reported on individual exchange and statewide aggregate
bases.
(3) Regarding installation
of local exchange service, the carrier shall complete 95 percent of its
installation orders within five business days of the application date,
excluding those orders where the customer specifically requests a later due
date. Ninety-five percent of the orders where the customer specifically
requested a later due date must be completed on the customer-requested due
date.
(a) The carrier shall complete 100
percent of all orders for service installation, excluding those orders where
the customer specifically requested a later due date, within 180 calendar days
of the application date.
(b) Each
carrier shall make commitments to customers as to the date of installation of
all service orders.
(c) Violations
of the installation requirements do not exist if the carrier is unable to
comply due to customer reasons, or work stoppages directly affecting provision
of service in Montana, or other circumstances outside the carrier's control
that can be documented by the carrier. A carrier may not exclude orders from
this measurement in those instances where the installation required access to
the customer's location and no access was available, but the carrier either did
not schedule an installation appointment with the customer for on-premises
access or did schedule an appointment, which may not exceed a four-hour
appointment window, but did not arrive at the customer's premises at the
appointed time.
(d) A carrier shall
not cancel customer installation orders at its own discretion. An installation
order received by a carrier shall remain a pending order until the installation
is completed or the customer requests cancellation at his or her own initiative
or in response to the carrier's inquiry. An installation order may be cancelled
if the carrier has made a good faith effort to contact the customer and the
customer has not responded to the carrier's inquiries.
(4) Calls requiring timing shall be
accurately timed. Each carrier shall maintain adequate personnel to provide an
average operator answering performance on a monthly basis as follows:
(a) Eighty-five percent of toll and/or local
assistance operator calls answered within ten seconds (equivalent measurements
as approved by the commission may be used).
(b) Eighty percent of directory assistance
and intercept calls shall be answered within ten seconds (equivalent
measurements as approved by the commission may be used).
(5) Sufficient central office and interoffice
channel capacity and equipment shall be provided by the carrier to meet the
following requirements during the average busy season, busy hour without
encountering blockages, or equipment irregularities:
(a) Dial tone within three seconds on 98
percent of calls.
(b) Proper
completion of 97 percent of correctly dialed intraoffice calls.
(c) Proper completion of 97 percent of
correctly dialed interoffice calls within the local calling area.
(d) Proper completion of 97 percent of
correctly dialed interexchange toll calls.
(6) All facilities shall meet accepted
industry design standards and shall conform to the following transmission and
noise design parameters:
(a) Newly constructed
and rebuilt subscriber lines shall be designed for no more than 8 dB
transmission loss at 1000 + 20 Hz from the serving central office to the
customer premises network interface. Subscriber lines shall be maintained so
that transmission loss does not exceed 8 dB. Subscriber lines shall be designed
and constructed so that metallic noise does not exceed 25 dB above reference
noise level ("C" message weighting) on 90 percent of the lines. Subscriber
lines shall be maintained so that metallic noise does not exceed 30 dB above
reference noise level ("C" message weighting).
(7) Customer trouble reports regarding local
exchange service must meet, at the minimum, the following requirements:
(a) Service shall be maintained by the
carrier in such a manner that the monthly rate of all customer trouble reports,
excluding reports concerning interexchange calls or nonregulated customer
premises equipment, does not exceed six per 100 local access lines per month
per exchange.
(b) Ninety percent of
out of service trouble reports shall be cleared within 24 hours, excluding
Sunday (except where access to the customer's premises is required but not
available, or where interruptions are caused by unavoidable causalities and
acts of God affecting large groups of customers).
(c) The carrier shall provide to the customer
a commitment time by which the trouble will be cleared.
(d) Carriers may charge customers for
investigating trouble reports only when:
(i)
dispatch of carrier personnel to the customer site is required;
(ii) the customer has been notified, prior to
the dispatch, that a charge may apply;
(iii) the carrier is able to identify the
exact nature of the problem that prompted the trouble report; and
(iv) the problem exists on the customer side
of the service.
69-3-103,
MCA; IMP,
69-3-102,
69-3-201,
MCA;
