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Competitive Topics Forum
7/18/02
The Forum utilized the Active Issues List, Issues Status at a Glance Document and
the Tracking Tool for specific issues dated July 12, 2002 to guide discussion for
the meeting. It was noted that Issue B-5 relating to Double
Billing would be closed for now since there had been no recent experience
with that problem.
The first item discussed was Issue B-1 which relates to Delays
For Billing New Contract Rates. BellSouth representative Chris Boltz
discussed reasons why BellSouth will not begin billing rates under new agreements
any sooner than 30 days from execution of a new agreement. She indicated that there
had been several major UNE orders in BellSouth's area recently and that there had
been a lot of agreements and amendments and this workload prevented BellSouth from
implementing new rates in a shorter timeframe. There was discussion concerning the
possibility of true-ups and the steps involved in going from a Commission vote on
changes to the point where the agreement's rates start to be billed. BellSouth indicated
that it was looking into possible changes and would report back on: (a) the possibility
of implementing rates and then making subsequent true-ups, (b) the timeframe between
a Commission order and the submission of a proposed agreement to an ALEC (Step 1),
(c) the timeframe between the execution (signing) of an agreement and the effective
date of the new agreement (Step2), (d) contract language setting out the 30 day
implementation timeframe, and (e) the name of and members of the BellSouth team
looking at this issue.
In discussing Issue MGT-1 which deals with ALEC Exit Strategy
(mass migration) and PO-1 which deals with an End User Migration
Process, representatives of Verizon described three documents. Two
of the documents were primarily New York Commission documents that Verizon modified
to reflect Florida language - (a) Mass Migration Guidelines and (b) End User Migration
Guidelines. The third document was a copy of FCC Rule No. 64.1120(e) which deals
with transfer of a customer base from one carrier to another. FPSC staff mentioned
that staff was in the process of drafting a rule dealing with situations where a
company exits the market. The two modified NY documents presented by Verizon will
be discussed by Forum participants at the next Forum meeting. Participants are to
review and identify major issues in the documents.
In regard to Issues MKT-1 Winback Campaigns and MKT-2 Marketing
Practices, BellSouth reported that the Georgia PSC was releasing a
draft code of conduct within the next week.
Discussions on Issue B-2 Self-Help included discussions of requests
for deposits and the correct definition for Self-Help.
Issues O-1 PMAP Data Integrity, O-2 CCP Release Packaging,
and O-3 Access to Pending Service Order Requests are to remain
in monitor status.
In regard to Issue R-1 Extended Outages, there was discussion concerning
the resolution of specific instances of outages versus systemic causes for extended
outages and how to prevent those in the future. Representatives of BellSouth and
KMC will discuss off-line.
The next meeting for the Forum was tentatively set for August 21, 2002 at 10:30
am. Likely matters for discussion at that meeting will include Issues O-4, PO-1
and MGT-1, B-1, MKT-1 and MKT-2 including the Georgia code of conduct and BellSouth
contract language concerning deposits.