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8678-C12-200905557

Ottawa, 2 August 2013

Teresa Griffin-Muir
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs
MTS Allstream
Suite 1400
45 O’Connor Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1A4
iworkstation@mtsallstream.com

Email: iworkstation@mtsallstream.com

Dear Ms. Griffin-Muir:

Subject: Use of Deferral Account funds to improve access to telecommunications services for persons with disabilities and to expand broadband services to rural and remote communities, CRTC file # 8636-C12-200817505, 8636-C12-200817512, 8626-C12-200817520 – MTS Allstream application

In the above application, MTS Allstream proposed to use Deferral Account accessibility funds to cover costs related to accessibility enhancements to its mts.ca website, Internet Protocol (IP) Relay service, and Text Messaging to E9-1-1 (T9-1-1).

Commission staff has determined that additional information is required to complete its assessment of MTS Allstream’s application. Commission staff is thus requesting that MTS Allstream respond to the requests for information set out in Attachment A on or before
14 August 2013.

Yours sincerely
ORIGINAL SIGNED BY/

Mary-Louise Hayward, on behalf of
Nanao Kachi
Director, Social and Consumer Policy
Consumer Affairs and Strategic Planning

cc: Antica Corner, CRTC antica.corner@crtc.gc.ca

Distribution List

Canadian Association of the Deaf jroots@cad.ca
ARCH archlib@lao.on.ca; petricoi@lao.on.ca
Council of Canadians with Disabilities, laurie@ccdonline.ca
Council of Canadians with Disabilities, ccd@ccdonline.ca
Independent Living Canada, nationaldirector@ilc-vac.ca
Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), Christine.robbins@cnib.ca
Canadian Council of the Blind, mpotvin@ccbnational.net
The Canadian Hearing Society, ckenopic@chs.ca
Canadian Association for Community Living, mbach@cacl.ca
Centre québécois de la déficience auditive, cqda@videotron.ca
Public Interest Law Centre, mybow@legalaid.mb.ca
Disability and Information Technologies (Dis-IT), ine@ccdonline.ca
d_stienstra@umanitoba.ca
Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians/L'Alliance pour l'égalité des aveugles canadiens, mworkman@blindcanadians.ca
Farah.mughal@rci.rogers.com
Neil Squire Society, garyb@neilsquire.ca
Chris Stark, stark.chris@rogers.com; jeff.in.kanata@gmail.com
Clayton Zekelman, clayton@MNSi.Net
Beverley Milligan, Media Access Canada, bmilligan@mediac.ca
bell.regulatory@bell.ca
regulatory.affairs@telus.com
document.control@sasktel.sk.ca
regaffairs@quebecor.com
telecom.regulatory@cogeco.com
Regulatory@sjrb.ca
alexander.adeyinka@rci.rogers.com

Requests for Information

MTS Allstream’s proposed “Website Accessibility Enhancements”
1. Provide a breakdown of the costs associated with this initiative, including a more detailed work breakdown and a separation of the costs associated with enhancements to its mts.ca website and its MTSAllstream.ca website.
2. Confirm whether the website accessibility enhancements to date have been tested by persons with disabilities.
3. Specify the extent to which the proposed website accessibility enhancements were requested by persons with disabilities.
4. Confirm whether MTS plans to deploy the single search initiative to support its entire customer base. Specify any provisions or customizations of the single search initiative that MTS intends to make for the purpose of addressing the specific accessibility needs of customers with disabilities. Would MTS make these provisions or customizations in the absence of deferral account funds?
5. Would MTS make any of the enhancements to the website “wizards” in the absence of deferral account funds?

MTS Allstream’s proposed “Text Messaging to E9-1-1 Service (T9-1-1)”

1. According to the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC) Emergency Services Working Group’s (ESWG) report Text to 9-1-1 (T9-1-1) via silent voice call to 9-1-1 Trial Results, 3 October 2012, ESRE0061, “The 9-1-1 SPs unanimously propose that the preferred method of cost recovery of their T9-1-1 costs and charges be a tariff that would be structured in the same way as Wireless Phase I and Wireless Phase II Stage 1.” Please reconcile this unanimous proposal with the request for draw down deferral account monies to cover costs associated
with T9-1-1.
2. Please provide more details of the costs associated with the T9-1-1 Gateway. Describe the approach used to determine MTS Allstream’s proportionate share of the T9-1-1 Gateway (trial costs) and T9-1-1 Gateway (Launch Preparation Costs). Describe any costs that are unique to MTS and are not shared.

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