Uncertainties in AT&T’s Transition Plan Make It Hard to Assess, Observers Say

"We're all volunteers,” said Smith. “It’s a long way between milepost 86 and milepost 87 looking for a car on fire,” he said. And it’s especially significant because the proposed trial in Carbon Hill and Kings Point, Fla., is designed eventually to replace time-division multiplexing (TDM) with wireless and IP. “They still have some bugs to work out,” Smith said.

AT&T’s proposal (http://soc.att.com/OcK4c0) (CD March 3 p3) pointed to another issue still in the works, saying the telco is developing upgrades to the 911 capability of Wireless Home Phone, a wireless landline, that would emulate how 911 works on TDM landlines, and when a device is moved from its base it will give 911 its location accurately. AT&T acknowledged Smith’s call from the community center. There are still issues with ensuring cellphone 911 calls from inside buildings, like a community center, give accurate locations to dispatchers, Fred McCallum, president of AT&T Alabama, told us: “There are issues that people are working on. There just are. It’s the nature of the beast."

At this early stage in the FCC’s review process after AT&T submitted its proposal Feb. 27, local regulators, county and city officials, consumer groups, and to an extent even AT&T are still wrapping their minds around the trial and the myriad issues and potential ramifications involved in ultimately getting rid of landlines. “There are more questions than answers,” McCallum acknowledged. But uncertainties in AT&T’s plan, like the work needed to improve 911 accuracy, make it difficult to know just what to think about the proposal, said observers nationally and in the two communities.

The point of the trial is to find and fix any issues, an AT&T spokesman said. AT&T no longer wants to be obligated to maintain its old copper phone lines, when more than 70 percent of its customers nationally have dropped what’s known as plain old telephone service (POTS) in favor of wireless and IP, according to the proposal. AT&T is hoping the trials will identify the issues involved in getting rid of landlines, and that working through the solutions will give the FCC enough comfort to drop the requirement to maintain the old copper lines.

Unresolved Issues Trouble Granite

The first phase of AT&T’s trial, if approved by the FCC, would allow the company to offer only wireless or IP to new customers, according to the proposal. Existing POTS customers would continue being served by landline. AT&T won’t implement the first phase until the enhancements are made, a spokesman said Friday. Under a second phase, again subject to FCC approval, AT&T would drop POTS and shift customers to wireless or IP. Laying out the conditions for the experiments in January, the FCC said applicants must ensure reliable and uninterrupted 911 service during an experiment (http://bit.ly/1fAVLkk).

Among the unresolved issues AT&T acknowledged in its proposal is that two AT&T Mobility products, Wireless Home Phone and Wireless Home Phone and Internet services, are not compatible with analog data devices and such services as home security systems, fax machines and dial-up Internet service. “AT&T understands the importance of some of these capabilities and is therefore developing enhancements to Wireless Home Phone with LTE that will allow this wireless service to work with analog data devices, such as alarm monitoring, medical alert and credit card applications,” the proposal said.

The problem for Granite Telecommunications, a Quincy, Mass.-based CLEC with customers in the two communities, is that many of the businesses it serves have security systems and credit card machines, said General Counsel Michael Galvin. Whether eventually losing TDM is a problem depends on what AT&T comes up with to replace it, Galvin said. Despite AT&T’s assurances that problems will be solved before the first phase begins, he worries businesses, uneasy about questions like whether their security alarms will work, will sit out the trial. “If the trial goes forward with less than a representative sampling, the results will not be meaningful, and not an accurate predictor of the transition,” said Galvin, whose company supports the trial.

Another issue facing CLECs is whether moving from DS1s or DS3s, which support things like credit card machines and ATMs, to an ethernet-based system will cost businesses more, said Angie Kronenberg, Comptel general counsel. AT&T also doesn’t have a replacement for its local wholesale complete service for competitors, she said.

"While voluntary, the hope was that our members, like Granite, would get to test this,” said Kronenberg. “If the product isn’t ready to go yet, I question whether it’s going to be a useful test. I'm kind of surprised. AT&T has been pushing this for how many months? It just seems like it’s putting the cart before the horse."

'Early Stages'

For the most part, the two communities -- Carbon Hill selected as a rural area and Kings Point as a suburban area with large numbers of older people who haven’t made the IP switch -- are still studying the proposal before a March 31 FCC deadline for comments.

Mary Lou Berger, the Palm Beach County, Fla., commissioner who represents unincorporated Kings Point, said in an email she had just heard about the proposal and declined comment until learning more. “It’s at the very early stages at this point,” said Billy Luster, chairman of the Walker County, Ala., Commission, which includes Carbon Hill. “It’s been well received so far,” Luster said, adding that residents seem understand that landlines are going away and hope the experiment will bring better broadband and wireless to the rural area. “Let’s face it, everything is about to go wireless. I haven’t heard very much negative feedback. People seem pretty open to it,” he said. The initial reaction at community meetings was surprise and curiosity that the tiny town would be selected, said McCallum, who has been among the AT&T staff sitting sometimes one-on-one at tables with residents. “People generally understand the idea of working out the issues in advance of retiring network. ... I haven’t had anybody stand up and object and say, ‘no you can’t do this,'” McCallum said.

"This will hopefully place our community on the cutting edge for future implementation of the IP technology. It is an honor for our community to participate in the trials,” said Louie Chapman, city manager of Delray Beach, a neighboring community to Kings Point, in an email. The Alabama and Florida chapters of the AARP, which is usually active on issues involving phone service, declined to comment, as did the organization’s national office. IP service is deregulated in Florida. The state’s Public Service Commission hasn’t decided whether it will weigh in, said Jim Varian, chief adviser to PSC Chairman Art Graham.

A PSC spokeswoman said it’s unlikely the commission would act. The Alabama Public Service Commission has discussed the tests in general terms, and is studying AT&T’s proposal, an APSC spokeswoman said. Commissioners from both states did not return emails or declined to comment. “The transition to an IP network from the TDM network is new to everyone, providers and regulators alike,” the APSC spokeswoman said.