ARCHIVED - Telecom Commission Letter - 8740-A53-200613423

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Letter

Ottawa, 7 December 2006

File Nos:  8740-A53-200613423
              8740-B54-200613499
              8740-B2-200613514
              8740-T42-200613639
              8740-T46-200613647
              8740-M59-200613811
              8740-S22-200613613

To:   Attached Distribution List

Re:   800/888 Carrier Identification Service cost studies

In MTS Allstream Inc. - Request to review rates for 800/888 Carrier Identification service , Telecom Decision CRTC 2006-57, 12 September 2006, the Commission directed Bell Aliant Regional Communications Limited Partnership (Bell Aliant), Bell Canada, MTS Allstream Inc. (MTS Allstream), Telus Communications Company (TCC) and Saskatchewan Telecommunications (SaskTel) (the incumbent local exchange carriers or ILECs) to file within 45 days of the date of that Decision, amended tariff pages with supporting cost studies for their 800/888 Carrier Identification service.

On 27 October 2006 , the Commission received submissions from each ILEC pursuant to this directive.   SaskTel and Bell Aliant submitted that the database used to provide their respective 800/888 Carrier Identification service is a joint-use database service operated by Bell Canada on behalf of itself, Bell Aliant and SaskTel.   Therefore SaskTel and Bell Aliant requested that the Commission use the cost submission provided by Bell Canada when evaluating their proposed rates.

On 27 November 2006 the Commission received comments from Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc., MTS Allstream and Rogers Communications Inc., regarding Bell Canada 's, MTS Allstream's and TCC's submissions dated 27 October 2006 .

The ILECs may file reply comments with respect to the 27 November 2006 comments   by 22 December 2006 .

To assist the Commission to dispose of the application, Bell Canada , MTS Allstream and TCC are requested to provide responses to the attached questions addressed to them concerning their respective cost studies.   Responses to these interrogatories are to be filed with the Commission and served on the parties listed on the distribution list, by 12 January 2007 .  

In light of the above, Commission staff sets out the following further process for all interested parties

Parties may file comments by 22 January 2007 with a copy to all parties.   The ILECs may file reply comments by 29 January 2007 with a copy to all other parties.   All submissions are to be received and not merely sent by the dates specified.

Yours sincerely,

'Original signed by Y. Davidson'

Yvan Davidson
Senior Manager, Competitor Services and Costing
Telecommunications

Attach.

cc:     Marc Pilon, CRTC (819) 997-4535   marc.pilon@crtc.gc.ca

Bell Canada
110 O'Connor Street
7th Floor
Ottawa , ON   K1P 1H1

David E Palmer
Director, Regulatory Matters
TEL:613-785-6280
FAX:613-560-0472

bell.regulatory@bell.ca

MTS Allstream Inc.
45 O'Connor Street
Suite 1400
Ottawa , ON   K1P 1A4

Teresa   Griffin-Muir
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs
TEL:613-688-8789
FAX:613-688-8303

iworkstation@allstream.com

Saskatchewan Telecommunications
2121 Saskatchewan Drive - 12th Floor
Regina , SK   S4P 3Y2

W.N. (Bill)   Beckman
General Manager, Regulatory Affairs
TEL:306-777-4242
FAX:306-565-6216

document.control@sasktel.sk.ca

TELUS Communications Company Société TELUS Communications
10020 - 100 Street N.W.
31st Floor
Edmonton , AB   T5J 0N5

Terry   Connolly
Director, Regulatory Affairs
TEL:780-493-3735
FAX:780-493-5380

regulatory.affairs@telus.com

Bell Aliant Regional Communications, L.P.
Fort William Building , Floor 5
P.O. Box 2110
St John's , Newfoundland
A1C 5H6

 

Mr. David J. Hennessey
Manager, Regulatory Matters

regulatory@bell.aliant.ca

 

Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc.
5343 Dundas Street West
Suite 400
Toronto , Ontario
M9B 6K5

Mr. Jonathan Holmes
Director, Regulatory Affairs
TEL:   (416) 207-7747
FAX:   (416) 207-7125

jholmes@primustel.ca

 

Rogers Communications Inc.
333 Bloor Street East
Toronto , Ontario
M4W 1G9

Dawn Hunt
Vice-President, Regulatory
TEL:   (416) 935-7211
FAX:   (416) 935-7719

Dawn.hunt@rci.rogers.com

 

Interrogatories addressed to
Bell Canada

1)   With reference to maintenance expenses identified on page 10 and 11 in Attachment to letter Associated with Tariff Notice no. 6995, 27 October, 2006 :

a)   Identify the unit cost and assumed cost driver for the maintenance expenses associated with each component listed below. Explain how each of the unit costs were derived.

  1.   CCS7 Network
  2.   Itech Centre
  3.   International Network Management Centre (INMC)
  4.   800/888 database

b)   Identify the services other than the 800/888 Carrier Identification service that utilize the resource components 1, 2 and 3 in part a) above.

2)  With reference to the capital costs causal to demand categories described on page 8 in Attachment to letter Associated with Tariff Notice no. 6995, dated 27 October, 2006, provide the unit cost and assumed cost driver associated with each resource component identified in the categories listed in parts A and B below.   Explain how each of these unit costs was derived.   Explain if any of these resource components are shared by services other than 800/888 Carrier Identification service.

a)   Switching Equipment

  1.   CCS7 Link Processor
  2.   CCS7 Link Software
  3.   CCS7 monitoring system and associated equipment

b)   Other Capital to Demand

  1.   Service Management System (SMS)
  2.   Integrated Service Control Points (ISCPs)
  3.   Common Channel Signaling (CCS7)
  4.   Local Area Network/Wide Area Network Equipment (LAN/WAN)
  5.   Signaling Transfer Points (STPs)

Provide a brief description of the function of components 1) and 2) in Part B above.

3)   Provide a schematic diagram of Bell Canada's 800/888 Carrier Identification service which includes all capital components under the Switching and Other Capital as described on page 8 of Attachment to letter Associated with Tariff Notice no. 6995, dated 27 October, 2006.   Provide another diagram that illustrates the steps to update the 800/888 Carrier Identification service database.

4)   Provide details on the development of service provisioning expenses.   Provide the unit costs and assumed cost drivers.   Explain how each of the unit costs were developed.

Interrogatories addressed to
Telus Communications Company

1)   With reference to letter Re : Former TCI Tariff Notice no. 576, TCBC Tariff Notice no. 4261, Appendix dated 20 November, 2006, page 3 of 9, section 6.4.3 -Capital Causal to Demand, specify the PWAC, unit costs and assumed cost drivers for each of the resource components under the Switching category listed below.   Provide details on how the unit costs were derived for each item.

a)   NDB platform - Initial hardware purchase and installation
b)   NDB - LAN - Initial LAN installation cost
c)   NDB - STP SS7 links; initial installation
d)   STP - Tekelec platform installed cost
e)   STP - Geoprobe monitoring system installed cost
f)   STP - LIU in end office switch

•  With reference to page 2 of 9 section 6.4.2 Capital Causal to Service   of Appendix to letter Re : Former TCI Tariff Notice no. 576, TCBC Tariff Notice no. 4261, dated 20 November, 2006, specify the PWAC, unit costs and assumed cost driver if any for each of the components listed below.   In addition, provide the approved plant lives used for each item.

a)   NDB - NDB Laboratory
b)   NDB   platform - hardware additions
c)   NDB - LAN connections
d)   NDB - STP SS7 links, additions
e)   NDB - Application software; initial and subsequent loads

3)   Provide a schematic diagram of the TCC 800/888 Carrier Identification service which includes all major capital components under Capital causal to Service and Capital Causal to Demand identified in interrogatories 1) and 2) above.   Provide another diagram that illustrates the steps to update the 800/888 Carrier Identification service database.

4)   Explain why demand growth is expected to be flat over the next five years despite expected economic growth.   Provide actuals for the years 2003, 2004, and 2005.

5)   Provide details of all maintenance activities that have been included in TCC's cost study.   For each maintenance activity, provide detailed explanations of the methods used for calculating the expenses associated with that activity.   In the explanation for the expense for each maintenance activity, provide the methodology and underlying assumptions (eg labour unit costs, time estimates, cost factors, unit costs, drivers, etc).   Specify the PWAC for each major component of the maintenance expense.

6)   With reference to Appendix to letter Former TCI Tariff Notice No. 576 TCBC Tariff Notice no. 4261 , dated 20 November   2006, page 3 of 9, section   6.4.4, it is mentioned that the 800/888 Carrier Identification service incurs Advertising and Sales Management expenses.   However in Table 5 - Detailed Summary of Phase II costs, costs for that item is zero.   Explain the discrepancy.

Interrogatories addressed to
MTS Allstream Inc.

1)   In reference to Attachment to the letter Associated with Tariff Notice No. 605, dated   27 October, 2006 :

a)   Provide the unit cost for each of the switching and transport components associated with the CCS7 signalling DS-0 link;

b)   With reference to Switching Equipment capital costs, provide the unit costs and assumed cost drivers for the Tekelec STP and DMS-100 hardware and software.   Explain how the unit costs were developed and provide the PWAC of each of the above components;

c)   Provide the annual support costs assumed for each of   the Tekelec STP platform and the Agilent CCS7 monitoring platform;

d)   Provide a schematic diagram of MTS Allstream's   proposed 800/888 Carrier Identification service which includes all major capital components under the Switching and Transmission cost categories.   Provide another diagram that illustrates the steps to update the 800/888 Carrier Identification service database; and

e)   Provide demand actuals for 800 / 888 Carrier Identification service for each of the years 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Date Modified: 2006-12-07
Date modified: