presentation to the Minnesota Telecom Alliance Conference Oct 2013

1. 10/10/2013
Call Termination Update

2. Call Termination Proposal –
Start With The End In Mind
In cooperation with Rural Minnesota ILECs – Establish a team of dedicated resources
to take a subset of the reports and push the carriers and FCC to resolve
 Whack-A-Mole is not sustainable
 Calls are taking 20+ hours to isolate – often carriers will not support isolation
 Propose a new plan:
 Focus a team of resources on inbound only – Onvoy and ILEC Dedicated members
 Concentrate on a subset of ticket and work them to completion (push, push, push)
 Executive support from Fritz and ILEC General Managers (weekly review)
 FCC – engage Enforcement Bureau to when carriers participation stalls
 Lobby – engage MTA and NTCA lobbying efforts to support the concentrated effort
 Elected Officials – provide status reports that cover the effort and support from
carriers
We need to escalate our collective focus and use all available tools to push a resolution
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3. Agenda
 Call Termination Review
 Why Separate Voice Quality from Call Termination?
 Ticket Trends
 Origination Number Change, Current Trends, and Next Steps
 Ring No Answer – Current Trends and Next Steps
 Proactive Testing and the Results
 Local Bypass
 Request for Collaboration with FCC
1 Failure of carriers to terminate calls in rural areas has a consumer economic and safety impact, this discussion is not intended to quantify or qualify the
impacts
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4. Call Termination Issues – Quick Refresher
There are three types of Call Termination issues plaguing our industry
1) Ring No Answer - Originating carrier signals ring back to their consumer,
when in fact the call has not been offered to the far end consumer 2,3
Two typical scenarios:
o Call is never offered to the far end consumer
o Call is delivered to the far end user after 9 to 10 rings
2) Originating caller number changed from Intra to Inter State – far end
consumer does not accept call because the originating number is not
recognized
3) Poor call quality – (Manage this separately from Call Termination Issues)
2
Originating carriers should not signal to the originating consumer that a call is in progress until the far end device has been offered the call
intermediate carriers are signaling that the far end device has been offered the call therefore the originating carrier may not know the
far end has not been offered the call
3 Some
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5. Voice Quality – Why separate from Call Termination?

6. Voice Quality – Why separate from Call Termination?
Conversion from Analog (Native Voice) to Digital (Both IP and TDM) is performed by a
CODEC – more than TWO conversions in a call flow will result in poor quality
G.729
G.726
G.711
G.722
G.723
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7. Voice Quality – Why separate from Call Termination
Conversion from Analog (Native Voice) to Digital (Both IP and TDM) is performed by a
CODEC – more than TWO conversions in a call flow will result in poor quality
CODEC
G.711
G.729
G.723
G.726
G.722
Bit Rate/Kbps
64
8
16
32
64
Normal Ethernet
Bandwidth/Kbps
90
32
22
54
90
Example Conversions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Bluetooth in Car
Cellphone G.723
TDM
LD Carrier (Maybe VoIP)
Rural Termination (TDM/VoIP?)
Analog Line
Cordless Phone
All carriers operate as expected – call quality is still bad
Not rural carrier targeting
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8. Call Termination
Ticket Trend

9. Ticket Trends – Are the trends real?
According to incidents reported to Onvoy, the Call termination issues transitioned to
Rural CLECs – with two primary targets
All ILECs in MN – Except CTC and Park Region CLECs
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Inbound - ANI/CNAM
Inbound LD - Can't Call
25
CTC and Park Region CLECs
20
15
FCC Inbound
Termination Meeting
10
Inbound - ANI/CNAM
Inbound LD - Can't Call
5
0
4/1/2012 7/1/2012 8/1/2012 9/1/2012 11/1/201212/1/2012 4/1/2013 5/1/2013 6/1/2013 7/1/2013 8/1/2013 9/1/2013
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10. Call Termination
Origination Caller Info Change

11. Trouble Reported – Originating Number Change
Originating caller information is being changed, in the middle of the call flow, from
Intra to Inter State; terminating carriers has no regulatory authority to trace the call
Originating Number:
Local = CenturyLink (218)
Toll = Pic’d to TDS
PIC
Originating
number correct
to this point
Data
Originating
TDS/
LEC
US Link
Originating
number at this
point is 347 xxx 4
?
(Qwest)
Terminating Number
Local = CTC (218) Xxx
CenturyLink
Long
Distance
CTC
CenturyLiink
Rural LEC
RBOC
Direct
Caller ID:
Originating number = (347) xxx
CTC or its delegate have no regulatory authority to compel carriers in the call flow to disclose the call routing information
required to isolate the carrier converting the call – this trouble is likely correlated to the failed call attempts issue
4
CenturyLink validated that the number arrived to them as a 347 xxx number – subsequent testing with Level 3 indicated that Level 3 was in the call flow and that the call was handed
to them by Time Warner Cable with the 347 xxx number (347 xxx is a Time Warner Cable number) Please note: Time Warner Cable likely picked this up from their consumer.
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12. Call Flow Example – Originating Number Change
Focus work with the FCC and Carriers reduced the issues for a few months, but the
trouble has moved again
Sum of MOU
Column Labels
Row Labels
01-2013
02-2013
03-2013
04-2013
05-2013
06-2013 07-2013 08-2013
09-2013
10-2013 Grand Total
3475174
16,639
21,680
24,806
63,126
3475423
12,209
18,434
26,870
57,514
3475606
13,278
25,609
19,905
58,791
3477324
15,884
22,025
29,269
67,178
3477329
50,686
47,054
69,839
3477384
17,797
19,498
30,691
67,985
20,676
20,676
3478087
3478948
37,522
60,306
15,493
3478949
40,542
22,586
190,164
25,644
3479307
19,474
157,844
41,137
8,703
8,516
21,088
11,045
10,951
11,450
71,753
9,069
21,779
11,150
8,146
10,322
60,465
6464676
2,980
2,980
6467220
19,658
3479885
7607058
38,182
8014075
Grand Total
63,377
2,159
4,347
206,810
164,014
210,336
310,194
25,485
101,559
2,188
8019610
5,827
20,641
19,336
43,357
94,054
130,595
295,754
101,604
62,202
65,552
115,310
175,004
514,792
5,827
1,505,797
It has turned in to a game of Wack-A-Mole
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13. Originating Number Change
Next Steps?
 Onvoy has reached out to all four owners of the originating numbers
 Opened case with their respective fraud department
 Called repair cases into the respective NOC
 All companies are supportively working the reports
 Traffic patterns are improving, but we are watching this closely
 Based on analysis – It appears the number owner is subject to Toll Fraud
 Likely a hacked PBX or VoIP line
 If you have a case, please report it
 NOTE: A REPORT TO ONVOY DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE WORKING IT
 If you want it proactively isolated please let us know
 Isolation and trouble analysis is time consuming and will required resources from
both our team to resolve
Example: We are 15 hours into 1 trouble for CTC where Charter is the Originating carrier
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14. Call Termination
Originating Caller Hears Ringing – Far End Does Not

15. Originating call suspended in the Network
Originating calls never offered to the rural LEC are considered “Suspended in the
Network” – These calls must be isolated from the originating carrier
 Using the call flow from the previous page – the Wholesale LD LCR application is
capable of suspending a call while awaiting a route – in the example TWC
 The application plays or signals ring back tone to the originating end user office while it
looks for an available route to terminate the call
 Originating consumer will hear ringing and think the call is completed to the far end
when in reality the call is held up at the Wholesale LD Carrier Application
?
Wholesale
LD
Rate
Deck
Offered
IXC Carriers Looking for
Terminating Rates to
Rural Exchanges
Google Voice has reached out
to Onvoy and requested our
support to isolate a carrier that
is suspending calls – some
destined for MN ILECs
LCR Carrier
347- xxx Exchange
Originating
Premise
LEC
PBX
(TWC)
Number Changed
Time Warner Cable
sends out via Least
Cost Route to CTC
CenturyLink
CTC
Retail Offer
Maybe Flat Rate?
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16. Proactive Testing
8 ILECs and 12 Originating Carriers Tested

17. Call Termination Test – Daily Carrier Testing
In cooperation with Rural Minnesota ILECs – Termination in Rural Areas is tested two
times a day across 8 ILECs and a dozen origination carriers
 Call termination issues began to escalate at the end of March beginning of April
 Test calls were set up to identify and isolate issues
 8 Participating ILECs provided a resource to answer calls for 30 minutes
 Monday – Thursday test calls are run two times a day
 Test results are recorded 1) Number of rings both ends 2) Caller ID 3) Did the call
complete
 Non – performing carriers are contacted to repair (repeat repairs are turned into FCC)
 FCC has reached out to non responsive carriers to investigate issues
 FCC is also investigating the originating number change to 347, 801, and 760
 Originating test lines include: 5 Wireless, 2 VoIP, 3 ILEC, 2 Cable, RBOC, and Our own
LCR carriers
 2 VoIP carriers issues persist – majority of other carriers running clean (Now)
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18. Local Bypass
Toll Calls over Local Trunks

19. Onvoy SS7 Portal
Onvoy’s SS7 Portal enables LECs to view traffic terminating to them on non-Onvoy trunk
groups – starts with summary information and allows the LEC user to drill down
Terms
DPC
Destination Point Code - Customer
switch destination
OPC
Originating Point Code - Point Code
of the originating switch
Call Type
Determines if the call(s) to the DPC is
considered Wireless, Wireline or
Unknown in Nature. Unknown would
be if the Originating number is not
valid or in a format that is
unrecognizable.
Orig Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is determined by the
relation of the Originating # to the
Terminating #. The Values for this
field are 8XX, Local, Intrastate,
Interstate, Unknown, IntraMTA,
InterMTA.
A Jurisdiction
A-Jurisdiction uses the A-number to
set the jurisdiction. So if the charge
number is populated and the
jurisdiction is local but the A-Number
is an interstate number, the Ajurisdiction is interstate.
Messages
Total number of messages
terminating from an OPC to a DPC
MOU
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Definition
Total number of Minutes of Use
terminating from an OPC to a DPC
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20. Detect Bypass using OVS SS7 Portal
Access bypass can be indicated when Originating Jurisdiction column does not match A
Jurisdiction column as shown below – toll calls that are made to look local
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21. OVS SS7 Portal – Summary Information
Clicking on the blue highlighted messages from the previous screen provides additional
data that will allow you to determine the OCN who may be causing the access bypass
Onvoy investigated further and found that Brooks Fiber is inserting a local charge
number into the call signaling and Qwest/CenturyLink is delivering the call to the LEC
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22. Brooks Fiber Issue
Onvoy reported the issue to Qwest/CenturyLink where it has been escalated – Brooks
Fiber has been notified by Qwest to correct the issue or Qwest will take action
 Call and Record Flow
• Brooks Fiber is handing calls off to Qwest/CenturyLink on the Brooks Fiber LIS trunks
• A charge number that is local to the called number is being inserted into the call signaling
• Qwest uses the charge number to set jurisdiction of the call in their systems and therefore in
these cases, the calls are set as local
• The LECs receive local call records in their transit files from Qwest
• The LEC CABS billing systems do not bill these records because they are local
• The LEC will not collect access on these calls - impacting the NECA Pool
• Although we have no proof of it at this time, this activity could be causing incoming calling
issues if Brooks Fiber publishes a low rate to specific LECs/CLECs and gets more traffic to
those locations than they can handle
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23. Request of the FCC
(Order Collaboration)

24. Industry Request for Collaboration with FCC
Difficult situation to control, below are tools that can help the industry isolate the
offending carriers
 Order: Call record retention – minimum 90 days
 Order: All carriers must register a “Point of Contact” required to support isolation
 Caller ID Change: (Order)
 Terminating Carrier has the RIGHT to trace the call back to Originating Carrier
 Carriers in the terminating call flow MUST provide the call detail records and
upstream carrier information to help isolate the issue
 Call Did Not Termination: (Order)
 Origination Carrier “Point of Contact” is required to provide Call Detail and
Upstream Carrier
 Carriers in the Originating call flow MUST provide the call detail records and
upstream carrier information to help isolate the issue
 Order: Carriers not conforming to the rules will be fined
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