1901896 Formal Case No. 990, In the Matter of Development of Local Exchange Carrier Quality of Service Standards for the District
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PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
NOTICE OF FINAL RULEMAKING
FORMAL CASE NO. 990, IN THE MATTER OF DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL EXCHANGE CARRIER QUALITY OF SERVICE STANDARDS FOR THE DISTRICT
1. The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia (Commission), hereby gives notice, pursuant to section 34-802 of the District of Columbia Official Code and in accordance with section 2-505 of the District of Columbia Official Code,[1] of final rulemaking action taken on January 26, 2012, in Order No. 16690, amending portions of chapter 27 of title 15 of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was published on August 5, 2011,[2] proposing to amend chapter 27 in its entirety, including section 2740. Verizon Washington, DC Inc. (Verizon DC) filed comments on September 20, 2011.[3] In Order No. 16583, the Commission finalized all of chapter 27 except section 2740 and the definition of “service outage.”[4] A second Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing further amendments to subsections 2740.5 - 2740.8, subsection 2740.17, and the definition of “service outage” was published on October 21, 2011.[5] Verizon Washington, D.C. Inc. (Verizon DC) and Comcast Phone of DC, LLC (Comcast), filed comments to the October 2011 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.[6]
2. In Order No. 16690, the Commission voted to finalize the amendments to section 2740 except for subsection 2740.17. The Commission also finalized the definition of “service outage.” Section 2740.17 will be the subject of a further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. No changes were made to the rules being finalized in this Notice of Final Rulemaking.
Section 2740, REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR SERVICE OUTAGES AND INCIDENTS RESULTING IN PERSONAL INJURY OR DEATH, of chapter 27, REGULATION OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICE PROVIDERS, of title 15 DCMR is amended to read as follows:
2740 REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR SERVICE OUTAGES AND INCIDENTS RESULTING IN PERSONAL INJURY OR DEATH
2740.1 The provisions of this section, except as otherwise reflected, shall apply to all telecommunications service providers serving at least one hundred (100) customers or one hundred (100) access lines, excluding telecommunications service providers that utilize local access obtained from the incumbent local exchange provider or another telecommunications service provider via resold or commercially negotiated agreements.
2740.2 Telecommunications service providers shall report to the Commission and to the Office of the People’s Counsel certain telecommunications service outages and disruptions. Telecommunications service providers shall report incidents that result in the loss of human life or personal injury requiring hospitalization directly or indirectly arising from or connected with the maintenance or operation of the telecommunications system within the District of Columbia.
2740.3 All service outages shall be communicated by telephone or email to the Commission and the Office of the People’s Counsel as soon as practicable, but not later than one (1) hour after the telecommunications service provider has determined that a service outage has occurred.
2740.4 Each telephone or email communication rendered by the telecommunications service provider subsequent to a service outage shall, at a minimum, state clearly the following information:
(a) The date and time the telecommunications service provider determines that the service outage has occurred;
(b) The location of the service outage(s);
(c) The estimated total number of customers out of service;
(d) A preliminary assessment as to the cause of the service outage(s); and
(e) The estimated repair and/or restoration time.
2740.5 If the service outage is required to be reported to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) pursuant to 47 C.F.R. §§ 4.9 and 4.11, then the telecommunications service provider shall file a copy of the same reports with the Commission and the Office of the People’s Counsel.
2740.6 If the service outage occurs during the Commission’s business hours, the telecommunications service provider shall file the relevant Notification Communications Outage Report (NORS) required by 47 C.F.R. §§ 4.9 and 4.11 with the Commission and the Office of the People’s Counsel within two (2) hours after the NORS has been filed with the FCC.
2740.7 For service outages occurring outside of the Commission’s normal business hours, the telecommunications service provider shall file with the Commission and the Office of the People’s Counsel within one (1) hour of the next business day the relevant NORS filed with the Federal Communications Commission pursuant to 47 C.F.R. §§ 4.9 and 4.11.
2740.8 For those service outages that are reported to the FCC, within one (1) business day of submission of the Initial Communications Outage Report and the Final Communications Outage Report to the FCC pursuant to 47 C.F.R. §§ 4.9 and 4.11, the telecommunications service provider shall file a copy of the District-specific portion of those reports with the Commission and the Office of the People’s Counsel.
2740.9 If the telecommunications service provider withdraws any report that is submitted to the FCC pursuant to 47 C.F.R. §§ 4.9 and 4.11 as well as the Commission and the Office of the People’s Counsel, the telecommunications service provider shall file with the Commission and the Office of the People’s Counsel the withdrawal filed with the Federal Communications Commission within one (1) business day of submission of the withdrawal. The telecommunications service provider shall also explain the reasons for the withdrawal.
2740.10 The telecommunications service provider shall provide its customer service representatives or other appropriate employees with specific restoration information, including estimated restoration times, to enable the customer service representatives or appropriate employees to respond to customer inquiries regarding the service outage.
2740.11 The telecommunications service provider shall file a written report concerning all service outages with the Public Service Commission and the Office of People’s Counsel within five (5) days following the end of a service outage. Each written report shall, at a minimum, state clearly the following information:
(a) A description of the service outage(s) and/or incident(s) and information as to the cause of the event(s);
(b) The actual repair and restoration times of the service outage(s) and/or incident(s);
(c) A description of the restoration effort;
(d) The total number of customers affected by the service outage;
(e) A self-assessment of the telecommunications service provider’s restoration efforts in the District of Columbia; and
(f) A description of the steps that the telecommunications service providers will undertake to prevent such outages in the future or improve repair times and processes.
2740.12 The Commission may request additional information concerning any service outage, if necessary.
2740.13 Telecommunications service providers shall communicate by telephone or email all incidents that result in the loss of human life and/or personal injury requiring hospitalization, directly or indirectly arising from or connected with the telecommunications service provider’s maintenance or operation, to the Commission and the Office of the People’s Counsel within one (1) hour upon receiving notice of the incident.
2740.14 Each telephone or email communication concerning the loss of human life and/or personal injury requiring hospitalization shall, at a minimum, state clearly the following information:
(a) The location of the incident(s);
(b) The date and time of the incident(s);
(c) The total number of persons affected;
(d) A brief description of the incident; and
(e) Identification of a contact person and contact information.
2740.15 A written report concerning the loss of human life and/or personal injury requiring hospitalization shall be submitted to the Commission and to the Office of the People’s Counsel within thirty (30) days after the completion of any internal investigation or notification of the completion of any governmental investigation of any incident that results in the loss of life and/or personal injury requiring hospitalization, directly or indirectly arising from or connected with the telecommunications service provider’s maintenance or operations. If there is no investigation, the report shall be submitted thirty (30) days after the incident. The report shall include:
(a) A description of the incident(s) and information as to the cause of the event(s);
(b) The location of the incident(s);
(c) The exact date and time in which the incident(s) occurred;
(d) The total number of persons affected;
(e) Any other known relevant information about the incident not provided in the original notification; and
(f) The steps the telecommunications service provider will take to prevent such an occurrence in the future.
2740.16 The Commission may request, if necessary, additional information concerning any incident that results in the loss of life and/or personal injury requiring hospitalization, directly or indirectly arising from or connected with the telecommunications service provider’s maintenance or operations.
Section 2799, Definitions, subsection 2799.1 is amended by adding the following term and definition, in alphabetical order, to read as follows:
Service outage - an outage that lasts for at least thirty (30) minutes and affects one hundred (100) or more retail customers or one hundred (100) or more retail access lines. This definition includes an outage affecting the District of Columbia’s PSAP in one of the following ways:
(a) A loss of communications to the District of Columbia’s PSAP that is neither on the premises of the PSAP nor caused by the PSAP and no rerouting of calls is available;
(b) A loss of E911 call processing capabilities in at least one (1) of the E911 selective routers/tandems;
(c) Isolation of end-office switches or host/remote clusters from E911 service; or
(d) loss of associated number and associated location information and/or a failure of location determination equipment that is neither on the premises of the PSAP nor caused by the PSAP.
[1] D.C. Official Code § 2-505 (2011 Repl.); D.C. Official Code § 34-802 (2010 Repl.).
[2] 58 DCR 6656 (August 5, 2011).
[3] Formal Case No. 990, Verizon Washington, DC Inc.’s Comments to the Public Service Commission’s August 5, 2011 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (‘Verizon DC August 2011 NOPR Comments”), filed September 20, 2011.
[4] Formal Case No. 990, Order No. 16583, rel. October 14, 2011. These rules became effective upon the publication of a Notice of Final Rulemaking on October 21, 2011. 58 DCR 9020 (October 21, 2011).
[5] 58 DCR 9069 (October 21, 2011).
[6] Formal Case No. 990, In the Matter of Development of Local Exchange Carrier Quality of Service Standards for the District, Comments of Comcast Phone of DC, LLC (“Comcast Comments”, filed November 21, 2011; Verizon Washington, D.C. Inc.’s Comments to the Public Service Commission’s October 21, 2011 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Verizon DC Comments”), filed November 21, 2011.
