ARCHIVED - Telecom Commission Letter Addressed to Stephen Schmidt (TELUS Communications Company)

Ottawa, 31 October 2014

File number: 8665-C12-201403907

BY E-MAIL

Mr. Stephen Schmidt
regulatory.affairs@telus.com

Re: Clarification of response provided by TELUS Communications Company

Dear Mr. Schmidt:

In a letter dated 19 September 2014, Commission staff requested that Telus conduct a one-time typing test of all of its relay operators and provide the results of this test by 29 November 2014. In a reply dated 17 October 2014, Telus proposed to test a representative random sample of its total MRS agents for the following reasons:

(1) the total number of TELUS MRS agents; (2) the fact that these MRS agents are unionized employees, meaning that there are strict requirements in terms of conducting the testing during working hours; and (3) TELUS’ primary objective to minimize any impact on the quality of service for all of its relay services users.

Given reasons provided by Telus, Commission Staff is of the view that it is reasonable to test a statistically significant sample^{Footnote 1} of the operators. Commission Staff, therefore, requests that the information requested in its 19 September 2014 be submitted for a representative, and statistically significant random sample. As a reminder, the information requested is as follows:

The scores of these tests may be averaged over all of Telus’ relay operators for (a) English and (b) French operators. The results of this one-time test is to indicate both (i) average speed (words per minute), as well as (ii) average accuracy (percentage). If an operator is bilingual and processes calls in both English and French, the operator should be tested in both official languages.

Additionally, Commission Staff requests that Telus submits the following information along with its 29 November 2014 submission:

1. Details regarding the typing tests, which should include, amongst others:
   1. Duration of the tests;
   2. Detailed description of how the test was administered (for example was the test dictated to the operators, or was a written text provided for operators to copy? Were operators allowed to read the text prior to the test?)
   3. Number of attempts each operator was permitted;
   4. Copy of the texts used for the tests.
2. Justify how the samples used in your tests are representative and statistically significant. In doing so, ensure to provide:
   1. Confidence levels,
   2. Confidence intervals^{Footnote 2},
   3. Sample sizes,
   4. Total number of bilingual relay agents hired by Telus,
   5. Number of bilingual agents tested in the English sample, and
   6. Number of bilingual agents tested in the French sample.
3. Should Telus choose to average the results obtained in the samples, the following information should be provided for each test:
   1. Mode,
   2. Median, and,
   3. Standard deviation, if possible.
4. Comments on the results obtained and explain how these speeds and accuracy are appropriate for the service provided.

Should you have any questions regarding this letter, please contact Kay Saicheua at 819-934-1358 or by email at kay.saicheua@crtc.gc.ca.

Sincerely,

[Original signed]

Nanao Kachi
Director, Social and Consumer Policy

c.c.: kay.saicheua@crtc.gc.ca

Date modified:

2014-10-31