ARCHIVED - Telecom Commission Letter - 8678-C12-200615578

Letter

Ottawa, 5 December 2006

File No.:   8638-C12-200602708
              8678-C12-200615578

BY E-MAIL

Mr. W. N. (Bill) Beckman
General Manager
Regulatory Affairs
Saskatchewan Telecommunications
2121 Saskatchewan Drive
Regina , Saskatchewan
S4P 3Y2

Document.control@sasktel.sk.ca

Dear Mr. Beckman:

Re:  Review of proposals to dispose of the funds accumulated in the deferral accounts, Telecom Public Notice CRTC 2006-15

Pursuant to the procedure specified at paragraph 20 of Review of proposals to dispose of the funds accumulated in the deferral accounts , Telecom Public Notice CRTC 2006-15, 30 November 2006 , attached are interrogatories associated with this proceeding.   These interrogatories are in reference to Saskatchewan Telecommunications' (SaskTel) proposals to dispose of the remaining funds in its deferral account, submitted to the Commission on 1 September and 2 October 2006 .

SaskTel is requested to file its responses to these interrogatories with the Commission, and serve them on the interested parties to this proceeding, by 19 January 2007 .   These r esponses are to be received, and not merely sent, by this date.   In providing responses, SaskTel is requested to provide separate responses for each sub-part of each question.

Yours sincerely,

'Original signed by P. Godin'

Paul Godin
A/Director General
Competition, costing and tariffs
Telecommunications

cc:  Michel Murray, CRTC (819) 997-9300
      Interested Parties to PN 2006-15

ATTACHMENT

INTERROGATORIES TO SASKATCHEWAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS
5 December 2006

ACCESSIBILITY PROPOSALS

Proposed accessibility initiatives

601    Refer to SaskTel's 1 September 2006 submission, paragraph 29 and Appendix B, where the company proposed to improve the Special Needs section on its website.

a)   Describe how a customer will be able to reach the Special Needs section from SaskTel's home page;

b)   Specify whether all the information and functionalities (e.g. ordering service, accessing account information, etc.) on SaskTel's regular website will be made accessible to persons with disabilities in conformance with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards in the improved Special Needs section; and

c)   Identify and provide the rationale for any information and/or functionalities that will not be accessible through the Special Needs section.

602    Refer to SaskTel's 1 September 2006 submission, Appendix C, Product and Service Enhancement Initiatives.   With regard to the service enhancement options that are identified:

a)   describe the challenges, if any, that some persons with disabilities might have in accessing the service (e.g. persons with speech impediments or with intellectual disabilities), and how SaskTel proposes to address such challenges to ensure that the service is as widely accessible as possible; and

b)   describe how the proposed service will operate, including the mechanisms for registering and charging customers for use of the service .

603    Refer to SaskTel's 2 October 2006 submission, paragraphs 5 and 6 and Appendix A.

a)   SaskTel's target completion date for implementing Internet Protocol Relay (IPR) service is within 18 months of the Commission's approval.   Provide a description of the activities that will be performed during the 18-month period.   If a trial is to be conducted, describe the proposed scope of this trial in terms of the trial length, the number of operators, the anticipated number of users, and the criteria to be used to measure and evaluate the results of the trial;

b)   Describe the anticipated challenges in the implementation and ongoing operation of IPR service (e.g. staffing issues, evaluation of quality of service, etc.);

c)   Provide SaskTel's views regarding the appropriate ongoing funding mechanism for IPR service, once the service is implemented; and

d)   Specify whether IPR will be offered as an English-only, bilingual, or French-only service.   Provide the company's rationale for the choice of language.

604    Refer to SaskTel's 2 October 2006 submission, paragraph 7 and Appendix A.   SaskTel proposes that funds from its deferral account be used in partnership with the Government of Saskatchewan to leverage telecommunications solutions to continue advancing the citizenship and inclusion of persons with disabilities.

a)   Identify examples of the type of initiatives that might be funded under this arrangement;

b)   Describe the contribution of the Government of Saskatchewan to the identified partnership, and provide further details as to how this partnership would work;

c)   Explain and justify how it would be consistent with Disposition of funds in the deferral accounts , Telecom Decision CRTC 2006-9, 16 February 2006, to retain deferral account funds for future initiatives not specifically identified as part of SaskTel's proposals; and

d)   If funds are to be retained for future initiatives, explain whether SaskTel proposes to return to the Commission to seek approval of these initiatives.

Financial information

701    Refer to SaskTel's 1 September 2006 submission, Appendix C.   SaskTel identifies the funding required for a product and service enhancement initiative to benefit persons with sight, mobility or cognitive disabilities.   With respect to the costing information filed, provide the following:

a)   The cost study assumptions, including:

i)   financial parameters;

ii)   portfolio loading factor;

iii)   annual productivity increase factor; and

iv)   annual expense and capital increase factors.

b)   Regarding the proposed capital costs that are causal to demand and to service, provide the following information for each major type of capital equipment:

i)   associated costing methodology and assumptions;

ii)   life estimates;

iii)   fill factor values; and

iv)   the vintage date of the raw data used to develop the unit cost inputs, an explanation of the methods and assumptions used to express each of the capital unit costs in 2006 dollars as appropriate, and retrospective cost increase factors, if any were used.

c)   Regarding the proposed expenses that are causal to demand and to the service, provide explanations of how each of the expense estimates were developed, including a listing of all activities and associated costing assumptions (e.g. time estimates, labour unit costs); and

d)   Provide the annual demand by major demand drivers, if applicable.

702    Refer to SaskTel's 2 October 2006 submission.   In Table 3 of the Report on the Economic Evaluation of IP Relay Service Implementation , SaskTel identifies the funding required to introduce IPR service.   With respect to the costing information filed, provide the information requested in question 701 a), b), c) and d).