Stacy Hartman – Qwest Robin Howard - Verizon NRSC Co-Chairs

1. Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC)Overview and Case Study Stacy Hartman – Qwest Robin Howard - Verizon NRSC Co-Chairs

2. About ATIS • ATIS is the leading technical planning and standards development organization committed to the rapid development of global, market-driven standards for the Information Communication Technologies (ICT) industry. • 650 industry professionals from approximately 250 companies actively participate in ATIS’ 18 Industry Committees and Forums, which develop and promote global technical and operational standards for communications using a pragmatic, flexible and open approach. • Focused on delivering implementable and interoperable end-to-end solutions.

3. Network Reliability Steering Committee • The ATIS NRSC addresses network reliability improvement opportunities in an open, consensus-based environment and advises the communications industry through the development of standards, technical reports, bulletins, best practices, and annual reports. • To accomplish its mission, the NRSC: • Identifies and analyzes potential network reliability issues; • Provides industry feedback to the FCC on network reliability and on the FCC’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) and Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS); and • Serves as a public educational resource on network outage trends and the industry’s ongoing efforts to resolve network reliability concerns.

4. To facilitate discussions of sensitive outage data related issues, NRSC members have each signed a non-disclosure agreement. Network Reliability Steering Committee • NRSC members include wireless, wireline and cable companies: • Alcatel-Lucent • AT&T • Cox Communications • CenturyLink • MetroPCS • National Communications System (NCS) • Qwest • Sprint • Telcordia Technologies • T-Mobile • Verizon

5. Network Reliability Steering Committee Over the last 24 months, the NRSC initiated several studies related to critical infrastructure reliability, including: Business continuity planning (Hurricane and Pandemic) E911 public safety and outage and reliability Wireless, wireline, DS3, and digital cross-connect system outages DS3 Simplex Conditions American National Standard for outage classification Hardware sparing related to outage restoration NORS and DIRS evaluation for content, functionality, and usability Among these studies was a study initiated in response to FCC concerns regarding wireline outages A study team was created with participation by: Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, CenturyLink, Qwest, Telcordia and Verizon. 5

6. Issue The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) was concerned that the number of FCC Wireline outage reports being filed by the industry had increased at a statistically significant rate. • * Wireline – Number of Events slide provided by FCC PSHSB during February 2008 NRSC Meeting

7. Data Sources Investigated Final Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) reports, including detailed descriptions (January 2007 – December 2008) Providers’ internal non-FCC qualifying wireline outage data NRIC Best Practices Common Ground Alliance Best Practices State law Focus What was driving the increased number of Wireline outage reports Expand analysis beyond traditional FCC reported outages Determine whether company specific issue(s) had contributed to the increase Were there existing BPs available that could mitigate or prevent Wireline outages Data Analysis

8. Data Analysis Results Data results indicated significant trend of 1.3% Results • 87% Occurred outside • Direct Cause - Top categories: • Cable Damage • Hardware Failure • Root Cause - Top categories: • Cable Damage • External Environment • Hardware Failure

9. Direct Cause Groups Cable Damage 1.5% Increase - Significant 2007- 2008 Hardware Failure 0.5% Increase – Not Significant

10. Root Cause Cable Damage 0.55% Decrease – Not Significant 2007- 2008 Environment External 3.1% Increase - Significant Hardware Failure 1.9% Increase – Not Significant

11. Study Results • Primary direct cause of the increase in Wireline reports was cable damage • Primary root cause of the increase in Wireline reports was environment external • Of the causes examined, hardware failure was a small percentage of the total Wireline issue WIRELINE SUB-TEAM FINDINGS ALIGNED WITH NRSC DS3 OUTAGE TEAM FINDINGS FOR CABLE DAMAGE, ENVIRONMENT EXTERNAL AND HARDWARE 11

12. Industry Results • * Wireline – Number of Events slide provided by FCC PSHSB during November 2009 NRSC Meeting 12

13. Study Conclusion • NRSC issued a bulletin that: • Emphasized the importance of adhering to the external cable damage NRIC and CGA Best Practices; • Highlighted and supported the NRSC DS3 Outage Team recommendations for Cable Damage, Environment External and Hardware; • Outlined existing one-call laws, noting that, where there are weak laws, companies may consider advocating for more regulation; and • Noted the importance of following “Call Before You Dig” processes. • NRSC membership supports the Outage Reporting Advisory Subcommittee (ORAS) work on hardware failure cause code issues and the associated recommendations. • The Bulletin can be found at: http://www.atis.org/nrsc/Bulletins/NRSC_Wireline_Bulletin_2009-006.pdf

14. NRSC Co-Chairs Stacy Hartman Qwest – Director Public Policy (303) 707-7074 stacy.hartman@qwest.com Robin Howard Verizon – Network Operations Manager (972) 615-8248 robin.howard@verizon.com ATIS Contacts Tom Goode ATIS – General Counsel (202) 434-8830 tgoode@atis.org Maria Estefania ATIS – VP of Standards Development (202) 434-8842 mestefania@atis.org Contact Information