Posted 03/15/2001
Policy Forum
Delayed OSS Testing Holds Up Qwest's Long-Distance
Plans
By Kim Sunderland
Qwest Communications International Inc. (www.qwest.com) is having problems with its first-ever regionwide OSS testing.
The regionwide evaluation, never before attempted in the United States, has been delayed by the group overseeing the project, forcing Denver-based Qwest to set a new goal for entering the long-distance market in its 14 states. The situation marks the first major setback for this project, and may exemplify how tough it will be for this trend-setting OSS test to get off the ground.
Qwest, which merged with US West Inc. in 2000, planned on getting long-distance authority in at least one of the states in its region this summer. Qwest officials now say that the company's goal is to enter at least one state by the end of this year, and then be federally approved to enter all 14 states by year-end 2002.
The more conservative timetable is largely due to delayed testing of Qwest's OSS in 13 of its 14 states, according to company officials. The testing will determine if Qwest's network is open to local phone competitors, a prerequisite to satisfying the 14-point competitive checklist under Section 271 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Of the 14 items on the checklist, seven are pretty much directly related to the OSS test.
But the OSS testing--which is slated to take at least five months once it does begin--hadn't started as of early February. The reason: the Qwest Regional Oversight Committee (ROC, www.nrri.ohiostate.edu/oss.htm), the group administering the testing, was tweaking and refinalizing its data and certain requirements.
ROC's OSS collaborative was established in 13 of the 14 states served by Qwest. The group is conducting an open, web-based evaluation that provides a forum for interested parties to resolve issues related to the Qwest OSS testing. States involved in the project include Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Arizona, the remaining Qwest state, is conducting its own OSS testing process.
The ROC signed off on the Qwest master test plan last November, setting out the major testing activities and providing a detailed explanation of the testing process. KPMG Consulting (www.us.kpmg.com), the independent, third-party OSS tester, drafted the master test plan after the state commissions, Qwest, and CLECs agreed to the final draft with minor revisions on Nov. 16, 2000.
But then in January, competitors AT&T Corp. (www.att.com), WorldCom Inc. (www.wcom.com), and Z-Tel Network Services Inc. (www.z-tel.com) suggested more detailed requirements and needs in certain areas of the master test plan.
Specifically, the competitors would like to see certain performance measurements more thoroughly broken down and detailed so that nothing in this test is left to chance. An audit of the performance measures to be used also is being conducted.
Such exactness will help determine if Qwest's systems do successfully enable competitors to serve customers when service change orders are sent by CLECs during the OSS testing.
Qwest also must prove to regulators that its network is open in terms of unbundled network element (UNE) pricing. The CLECs lease Qwest's UNEs as lines or loops extending from homes to central switching offices, and they want fair and nondiscriminatory pricing on these UNEs.
WorldCom, for instance, says it needs a pricing structure that allows it to compete for residential and small-business customers. A public hearing on wholesale pricing issues is scheduled for May in Colorado, according to Bruce N. Smith, director of federal and congressional affairs for the Colorado PUC (www.dora.state.co.us/puc/). There's no telling at this point if such hearings will be held in other states or whether such hearings might further prolong the regionwide OSS testing.
Qwest says that the process to re-enter the long-distance market is proving to be more complicated than anyone originally anticipated. However, executives are holding out hope that the testing will be completed by Aug. 1.
Once the OSS testing is completed, Qwest then would begin filing Sec. 271 applications on a state-by-state basis with the FCC (www.fcc.gov).
