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Ottawa, July 15, 2009
File Nos.: 8740-B2-200907545
BY E-MAIL
Mr. David Palmer
Director – Regulatory Affairs
Bell Canada
160 Elgin Street, 19th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K2P 2C3
Dear Mr. Palmer:
RE: Bell Canada Tariff Notice 7199 and Bell Aliant Tariff Notice 263 – Flex Bundles and Flexibility 4 Bundle
On 15 May 2009, the Commission received applications by Bell Canada and Bell Aliant Regional Communications, Limited Partnership (Bell Aliant) (collectively, the companies), under cover of Tariff Notices (TN) 7199 and 263, respectively, in which the companies proposed modifications to their respective General Tariff – Item 2221, Flex Bundles and Item 2222, Flexibility 4 Bundle, to include the Voice Dialing feature of the Calling Features tariff (Item 2165.3e)) as one of the eligible calling features for these bundles.
Commission staff note that the companies proposed an effective date to be coincident with the approved effective date for Bell Canada TN 7191 and Bell Aliant TN 253, filed on 21 April 2009, in which the companies proposed to redesign the existing Voice Dialing feature and to eliminate the current restrictions on availability of the feature for individual-line residential subscribers.
As the Commission has requested responses to interrogatories related to TN 7191 and TN 253, determinations on these applications have not yet been issued.
The Commission will issue its determinations on TN 7199 and TN 263 at the same time as it issues its determinations on TN 7191 and TN 253.
Yours sincerely,
‘Original signed by S. Bédard’
Suzanne Bédard
Senior Manager, Tariffs
Telecommunications
cc: Joanne Baldassi, CRTC, (819) 997-4576, joanne.baldassi@crtc.gc.ca
ATTACHMENT
1) In response to interrogatory 19May09-2, the companies noted that the new voice-activated dialing (VAD) platform provides VAD as a network-based feature and that it does not recognize the customer’s primary interexchange carrier (PIC) selection. The Companies noted further that as the equal access feature would be required by a relatively small number of customers, developing the systems and processes to allow for long distance calls to be directly routed according to the customer’s PIC selection would not be a cost-effective use of deferral account funds, or the Companies resources.
(a) Identify how the Companies plan to inform customers of the limitations regarding equal access.
(b) Identify how long it would take the Companies to develop the systems and processes to allow for long distance calls to be directly routed according to the customer’s PIC selection.
2) In response to interrogatory 19May09-3, the companies noted that customers can request a change to the three second interval should they not want to connect to the VAD.
(a) Explain the basis on which the Companies determined that a three second interval would be sufficient. If available, provide any test results and subsequent analysis regarding this interval.
(b) Given that many of those subscribing to this service may have visual or mobility disabilities, explain whether or not a longer interval could be provided as the default interval at service launch (eg. ten seconds as opposed to three seconds) and customers would request reductions to the interval length, rather than increases. If this cannot be provided, explain why.
(c) Specify whether or not the Companies plan to test this feature with persons with visual and mobility disabilities in order to determine if the three second interval is sufficient. If not, explain why.
3) In response to interrogatory 19May09-5, the Companies stated that they expect that E9-1-1 functionality will be available in October 2009.
(a) If E9-1-1 support is not expected to be available at service launch, specify the date on which the Companies anticipate rolling out E9-1-1 support on the new VAD platform.
(b) If E9-1-1 support is not expected to be available at service launch, identify what the Companies will provide to customers in terms of notification regarding the limitations of Basic 9-1-1 (e.g. printed media, on-line materials, scripts for call centre personnel, websites) and in what alternative formats the information will be made available.
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