Billing World OSS News Ameritech Meets Electronic Interface Deadline

While some ILECs have unveiled electronic ordering systems they believe fulfill the requirements of last year's telecommunications reform act, many CLECs-particularly the large IXCs-argue that their needs are not being met and that the ILECs have purposely delayed opening their OSSs. ILECs, such as Ameritech and Nynex, argue the reverse, saying their electronic access systems meet the requirements of the act, so they should be allowed to enter the long distance market.

Ameritech, the first RBOC to apply for entry into long distance, demonstrated its new OSS gateway at a press conference in January. The RBOC offers six interfaces to its resale customers, covering pre-ordering, ordering, provisioning, maintenance, repair and billing functions as required by the act. The interfaces were designed with assistance from Bellcore, Telesphere and GE Information Systems (GEIS). According to Ameritech, its gateway can handle more than 5,000 resale orders daily and 30,000 unbundled network element orders monthly. CLECs must design their own applications to access the system, but Ameritech says it offers interface specifications, training programs for CSRs, on-site walk-throughs and documentation to help with the development process.

The pre-ordering, ordering and provisioning interfaces for line side services use EDI (electronic data interchange) protocol in an on-line fashion, as opposed to the usual batch process associated with EDI transactions. Pre-ordering functions include access to customer records, telephone number selection, due date selection, feature availability and address validation. For trunk side service ordering, an ASR (access service request) format is used. Ameritech says most orders can be received and processed electronically, but some orders do require manual intervention. The RBOC insists, however, that manual intervention will not affect its ability to meet specified due dates.

For trouble-ticketing, maintenance and repair, Ameritech has decided to use its OSI-based electronic bonding gateway, which has been in service with MCI and AT&T for the past two years. Once repair requests are issued, however, will Ameritech respond rapidly? The company issued a statement that says it will fulfill its service obligations to CLEC resale customers as if they were Ameritech customers. For unbundled elements, Ameritech says it "can only provide satisfactory service and adequate response time for the piece of the network it is providing to the CLEC's customer. The CLEC is responsible for its part of the network."

Ameritech will provide billing data for resale and unbundled line-based services electronically in an EMR (exchange message record) format. This data includes daily and monthly usage. For loops and unbundled network elements, Ameritech will bill CLECs electronically each month. Do these various access offerings comply with the act? This is a difficult question to answer and it depends on whom you ask. The act states that interfaces must be provided for the six aforementioned areas and that access must be nondiscriminatory." To most this is an ambiguous phrase, which has been debated from the start. It has been assumed that OSS access should be provided that will allow CLECs to provide the same level of service to their customers as an incumbent LEC. Ameritech believes that the interfaces will provide an equal level of service and therefore comply with the act. It also believes that it should be allowed to enter the long-distance market because it has "enabled competition."

Some CLECs-such as USN Communications, which participated in Ameritech's OSS access unveiling-don't appear to have any serious problems with the current arrangement. The IXC lobby, however, claims that Ameritech's resale interfaces are inadequate and that there are no interfaces to support ordering for leased, unbundled network elements. Ameritech, claims, however, that it can support electronic orders for element unbundling. To what extent these claims are accurate can be debated for years: The matter is subjective. According to the official judgment of Michigan's public service commission, Ameritech has hit every mark on the checklist that can allow it to enter the long distance market.

It would be premature to judge Ameritech's OSS interfaces. Until the system either supports or fails to support a large number of CLECs, the accuracy of the performance estimates will remain unknown. Regardless, the IXCs will continue to work toward federally mandated standards that would cut down their development costs but would create major reengineering expenses for the RBOCs.