IP Transition TrialIn a meeting with FCC Staff, AT&T provided additional details about its proposed IP transition trials in Alabama and Florida. The information relates to AT&T’s: (1) ongoing outreach efforts to consumers in the Carbon Hill, AL and West Delray Beach, FL (also referred to as Kings Point) wire centers; and (2) continuing efforts to develop data collection and reports for various aspects of those trials. Significantly, AT&T’s Ex Parte Statement  also addressed concerns raised by various parties regarding its plans for discontinuing TDM service to customers in the trial wire centers by stating that it “does not currently anticipate seeking approval to grandfather any TDM service earlier than the second half of 2015.” AT&T also assured the FCC that it “fully understands and acknowledges that compliance with the Section 214 process is a necessary prerequisite to discontinuing services in the trial wire centers, as well as in the general TDM-to-IP transition.”

 

Regarding its outreach efforts, AT&T told the FCC it has plans for outreach, education, and engagement of seniors in the Carbon Hill and West Delray Beach communities. AT&T said it’s AL IP Transition Trialoutreach will focus on “providing information about the proposed trials, answering questions and addressing concerns” and will include a “tech education” component, where it works with seniors to answer questions about IP-based phones, tablets and other devices, and “help them learn how to use these to connect, communicate, and access information.” AT&T reported it had already held its first education event in both states. AT&T reported that during the “tech training” event in Alabama seniors learned “how to take “selfies” with their phones to send to their grandchildren, and had their questions answered about how to use their devices.” After the Florida event, ‘[n]early every attendee indicated that the event made them more interested in using new communications tools and mobile devices, and ranked the value of the event as a “5” on a scale of 1 to 5.” The outreach documentation includes examples of the letters, advertisements, and other collateral used by AT&T in its outreach efforts.

 

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AT&T’s data collection presentation explains and provides illustrative reports for the data it proposes to collect and report during the trial. Six types of reports will be made, as follows:

 

Transition Progress Reports will track and report the number of customer migrations from TDM products to IP products by wire center. The report will classify migrations by the replacement product category (i.e., wireline or wireless) and market segment (i.e., consumer, business, and wholesale). There will be six reports each quarter. Consumer and business service reports for 4Q2014 will be reported in January 2015; AT&T said it is “still evaluating its capability to report wholesale activity and will report such once it is determined.”

Section 214 Customer Notification Reports will provide a summary of AT&T’s Section 214 grandfather and sunset customer notifications to TDM trial customers. The report will summarize by product the date of notification and number of customers notified. The consolidated report will cover consumer, business, and wholesale notifications. AT&T expects to provide the initial report in the month that follows the calendar quarter-year in which Section 214 notices are first sent and quarterly thereafter.

Customer Issues Reports will provide a summary of trial-specific customer issues based on customer perception, not actual AT&T performance. Customer issues will be sorted by trial location and customer segment and will include the number of issues by location, category, and subcategory. The following categories will be used: public safety; accessibility; universal service; and consumer protection (including number portability). AT&T expects to provide an initial report in January 2015 (covering the 4Q2014) and quarterly thereafter.

Network Performance Reports will cover wireline and wireless services. For wireline service, AT&T will provide data concerning the performance of the wireline IP-based voice services (business and consumer) and the TDM voice services they replace in the form of a metric based on the number of blocked or dropped calls. Data will be provided for the two trial wire centers and two control wire centers. For wireless services, AT&T will measure accessibility and retainability. Accessibility is the percent of attempted calls that are successfully established and allow voice communications to begin. Retainability is the percentage of voice calls that are successfully carried for the duration of the conversation. AT&T expects to provide an initial report in January 2015 (covering the 4Q2014) and quarterly thereafter.

Network Outage Reports will summarize reportable network outages that affected voice services in the trial wire centers and the control wire centers. AT&T expects to provide an initial report in January 2015 (covering the 4Q2014) and quarterly thereafter. Only outages reportable under the FCC’s Part 4 rules will be reported.

Access By Persons With Disability Reports will be provided quarterly, starting in November 2014 for the 3Q2014. AT&T said it had reached an agreement with the American Association of People with Disabilities to conduct outreach and education of customers with disabilities. AAPD will record and report to AT&T any feedback it receives and AT&T will supply this information to the FCC. 

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