Call Termination Update

10/10/2013Call Termination Update

2Proprietary and Confidential

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


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


Call Termination Issues – Quick Refresher

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)

There are three types of Call Termination issues plaguing our industry

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 call3 Some 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

Voice Quality – Why separate from Call Termination?


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


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 Bit Rate/KbpsNormal Ethernet Bandwidth/Kbps

G.711 64 90G.729 8 32G.723 16 22G.726 32 54G.722 64 90

Example Conversions:

1. Bluetooth in Car2. Cellphone G.7233. TDM4. LD Carrier (Maybe VoIP)5. Rural Termination (TDM/VoIP?)6. Analog Line7. Cordless Phone

All carriers operate as expected – call quality is still bad

Not rural carrier targeting

Call TerminationTicket Trend


Ticket Trends – Are the trends real?

According to incidents reported to Onvoy, the Call termination issues transitioned to Rural CLECs – with two primary targets

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Inbound - ANI/CNAMInbound LD - Can't Call

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All ILECs in MN – Except CTC and Park Region CLECs

CTC and Park Region CLECs

FCC Inbound Termination Meeting

Call Termination Origination Caller Info Change


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

LEC

(Qwest)

PIC

Data

TDS/

US Link ?CenturyLink

Long Distance

CenturyLiink

RBOC

Direct

CTC

Rural LEC

Originating Number: Local = CenturyLink (218)Toll = Pic’d to TDS

Terminating Number Local = CTC (218) Xxx

Originating number correct

to this point

Originating number at this

point is 347 xxx 4

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.

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


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 LabelsRow Labels 01-2013 02-2013 03-2013 04-2013 05-2013 06-2013 07-2013 08-2013 09-2013 10-2013 Grand Total3475174 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 22,586 190,164 3477384 17,797 19,498 30,691 67,985 3478087 20,676 20,676 3478948 37,522 40,542 60,306 19,474 157,844 3478949 15,493 25,644 41,137 3479307 8,703 8,516 21,088 11,045 10,951 11,450 71,753 3479885 9,069 21,779 11,150 8,146 10,322 60,465 6464676 2,980 2,980 6467220 19,658 5,827 25,485 7607058 38,182 63,377 101,559 8014075 2,188 2,159 4,347 8019610 206,810 20,641 19,336 43,357 94,054 130,595 514,792 Grand Total 164,014 210,336 310,194 295,754 101,604 62,202 65,552 115,310 175,004 5,827 1,505,797

It has turned in to a game of Wack-A-Mole


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

Call Termination Originating Caller Hears Ringing – Far End Does Not


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

Originating

LEC

(TWC)Premise

PBX

?

CenturyLink

Retail Offer Maybe Flat Rate?

IXC Carriers Looking for Terminating Rates to

Rural Exchanges

Rate DeckOffered

Rate DeckOffered

Wholesale LD

LCR Carrier

Number Changed

Time Warner Cable sends out via Least Cost Route to CTC

347- xxx Exchange

CTC

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

Google Voice has reached out to Onvoy and requested our

support to isolate a carrier that is suspending calls – some

destined for MN ILECs

Proactive Testing8 ILECs and 12 Originating Carriers Tested


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)

Local BypassToll Calls over Local Trunks


Onvoy SS7 Portal

Terms Definition

DPCDestination Point Code - Customer switch destination

OPCOriginating 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 A-jurisdiction is interstate.

MessagesTotal number of messages terminating from an OPC to a DPC

MOUTotal number of Minutes of Use terminating from an OPC to a DPC

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


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


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

OVS SS7 Portal – Summary Information

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


Brooks Fiber Issue

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

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

Request of the FCC(Order Collaboration)


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

Technology

Call Termination Update