AT&T Sets Mid-2015 Target Date for No New TDM Customers in Wire Center Trials
The second half of 2015 is AT&T’s target to stop offering legacy TDM services to new customers in its wire center trial areas, it told the FCC. The telco has said that when it stops offering TDM service to new customers in West Delray Beach, Florida, and Carbon Hill, Alabama, (CD March 3 p3) it would still “grandfather” legacy TDM customers for some time. TDM service to customers in AT&T’s trial wire centers won’t be discontinued “imminently,” the telco said in an FCC presentation Tuesday posted the next day to docket 13-5. “AT&T does not currently anticipate seeking approval to grandfather any TDM service earlier than the second half of 2015” (http://bit.ly/1k3vTTf). Public Knowledge was skeptical of the presentation, and the company’s IP transition plan has drawn many questions from state and local officials (CD March 17 p7).
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AT&T plans to start making transition progress reports available in early 2015 that track the number of customer migrations from TDM to IP products by wire center, the telco said. It said the report will “classify migrations by the replacement product category” -- wireline or wireless -- and “market segment,” such as consumer, business and wholesale. AT&T will also provide a “customer issues” report quarterly starting next year, summarizing trial-specific customer issues “based on customer perception, not actual AT&T performance,” it said. Additional network performance reports will report data on the performance of wireline IP-based voice services and the TDM voice services they replace; and wireless reports that track how many calls are connected and dropped. A “defects per million” metric will help AT&T track the data, it said.
AT&T said it intends to maintain a “continuous presence” in the two wire centers slated for trials. It has completed the “initial wave” of community events, and is now onto its “second wave” of outreach, focusing on seniors, it said. A Twitter account, ip4wdelraybeach, posted pictures Tuesday of senior citizens learning how to use computers and the Internet. “Technology training class in Delray Beach was a success!” AT&T said (http://bit.ly/1hegNvf). “Seniors who attended learned how to take ’selfies’ with their phones to send to their grandchildren,” AT&T told the FCC. Attendees of AT&T’s events have almost unanimously indicated the event made them more interested in using new communications tools and mobile devices, said the firm.
An AT&T website tells consumers in West Delray Beach about the benefits of the IP transition (http://soc.att.com/1tQ8I1K). The trial will give Floridians access to new technologies and products “while ensuring that the essential values of universal service, competition, public safety, reliability and consumer protection are preserved,” wrote Joe York, AT&T president-Florida, Puerto Rico and US-VI. The website has had over 2,200 unique visitors since it launched in March, AT&T told FCC officials in May 23 presentation (http://bit.ly/1k1rFgd). A similar site for Carbon Hill has had more than 2,600 unique visitors (http://soc.att.com/1oKGm6Z).
AT&T said it also reached out to “disability” communities and faith-based organizations to answer the “most important” customer questions: “Are my special needs understood?” and “How does this transition impact me?” The American Association of People with Disabilities will provide quarterly reports on outreach efforts that will be shared with the FCC and analyzed by AT&T “for trend issues,” the telco said.
Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney Jodie Griffin was left wanting by AT&T’s presentation. “It doesn’t seem like [AT&T] has actually expanded the metrics under which it is willing to collect and report data during the trials,” Griffin told us. The presentation focused on blocked and dropped calls, but customers can experience several additional problems on a call, she said, such as “intermittent quality, noise on the line, low volume levels, problems with call routing, and issues with customer-premises equipment.” The FCC must ensure the trials “objectively and comprehensively collect as much information as possible” about the new technologies, she said. That data it gathers could be important in ruling on telcos’ future applications to replace existing networks the new technologies under Communications Act Section 214, she said.