DT 99-020
INVESTIGATION OF THE CONGESTION ON THE TELEPHONE NETWORK
CAUSED BY INTERNET TRAFFIC
Order Approving Interventions
and
Establishing a Procedural Schedule
O R D E R N O. 23,185
April 5, 1999
APPEARANCES: Victor D. Del Vecchio, Esq. for Bell
Atlantic-New Hampshire (BA); Anu Mullikin, Esq. for Dunbarton
Telephone Company, Bretton Woods Telephone Company, Dixville
Telephone Company, Wilton Telephone Company, Hollis Telephone
Company, Granite State Telephone Company and Northland Telephone
Company; James Sanborn, for Union Telephone Company; Beth Osler
for Merrimack County Telephone Company and Contoocook Valley
Telephone Company; Michael Reed for Kearsarge Telephone Company,
Meriden Telephone Company and Chichester Telephone Company;
Curtis L. Groves, Esq. for MCI WorldCom; Morton Posner, Esq. for
Bay Ring Communications (BayRing)and WorldPath Internet Services
(WorldPath); William J. Rooney, Jr., Esq. for Global NAPs
(Global); Ronald E. Boehm for ValleyNet, Inc.; George W. Scott
for MonadNet Corp.; Jeffrey L. Gore for FCG Networks (FCG); Mark
E. Mallott for MV Communications (MV); Marc N. Evans for Destek
Networking Group (Destek); John Leslie for John Leslie
Consulting; Gent Cav for Metro 2000, Inc.; F. Anne Ross,
Esq.;Richard Groves and Jared Groves for Digital Entropy; Carol
Miller and Chad Miller for North Country Internet Access (NCIA);
Jim Monahan for Vitts Networks; Kris Haight for Sugar River
Valley Online; Michael W. Holmes, Esq., Office of Consumer
Advocate (OCA) for Residential Utility Consumers; Larry S.
Eckhaus, Esq. for the Staff (Staff) of the New Hampshire Public
Utilities Commission (Commission).
I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On February 8, 1999, the Commission issued an Order of
Notice establishing this proceeding in the interest of statewide
public safety and quality of communications to investigate
congestion on the public switched telephone network (PSTN) caused
by the proliferation of Internet usage. The Commission has
received complaints in more than eleven different exchanges over
the past year relative to long periods of delayed dial tone and,
in some cases, no dial tone or fast busy signals. The
Commission had also determined that the level of consumer
complaints reflects a continuing deterioration in service for
many New Hampshire customers, substantiated by monthly central
office blockage and dial-tone delay reports from New England
Telephone and Telegraph Company d/b/a Bell Atlantic-New
Hampshire.
Proliferation of Internet traffic and the lengthy
on-line duration of an average session on the Web has increased
the average holding time on central office switches resulting in
delayed dial tone or service blockage. This investigation
includes, inter alia, consideration of potential solutions to
this issue such as: a prohibition of Internet Service Provider
(ISP) traffic on the line side of the switch, development of a
tariff designed to encourage ISP customers to purchase service
that is provisioned from the trunk side of the switch, a
requirement that ISPs disconnect customers from the network when
not actively using the Internet for a specified period of minutes
and any other potential solution to this problem.
The Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) were
deemed to be mandatory parties to this docket. In addition, the
Emergency Communications Bureau (ECB) and the Office of Emergency
Management (OEM) were sent copies of the Order of Notice as were
known Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
In accordance with the Order of Notice, a Prehearing
Conference was held on February 24, 1999.
II. POSITIONS OF THE PARTIES AND STAFF
A. Bell Atlantic - New Hampshire (BA)
BA is experiencing a fundamental network change because
of Internet traffic. BA averred that it has added switch line
units, rebalanced subscribers across existing line concentrators,
added trunking umbilicals between hosts and remotes, added
additional transport capacity beyond the host/remote
configuration in New Hampshire for transport of traffic, and has
added message trunk capacity on switches. Lastly, on an
emergency basis, Integrated Digital Loop Carrier has been
provided to maintain Internet service connections, as well as the
integrity of the network in a particular exchange. BA believes
that solutions to network congestion include encouraging
migration of ISPs to the trunk side of the switch. BA also
agrees that development of tariffs to encourage ISP customers to
purchase services from the trunk side is part of the solution.
The quickest approach, according to BA, would be to permit
special contracts on an interim basis. The long term solution is
to encourage Asynchronous Transfer Mode and Frame Relay
solutions.
B. Intervenors
There was no unanimity among intervenors regarding
either the cause of the problem or the potential solutions.
Several comments were made concerning the impact of the situation
on their businesses. NCIA, MonadNet and others maintained that
getting service from BA was difficult, with long lead times for
installation. They also maintained that contract termination
clauses in existing contracts were an impediment to switching
from the line side of the switch. Attorney Anne Ross, MCI and
others maintained that it is the incumbent utility's job to make
sure that there are adequate facilities available for both
telephone and the Internet. ValleyNet, Global NAPS, BayRing and
WorldPath suggested that the problem is due to the business
practices of BA, lack of switch capacity due to BA
non-investment, inadequate tariff incentives to move to the line
side of the switch, including termination penalties, and the
presence of BA as a competitor to Internet Service Providers. FCG
stated that the process does not need PUC involvement and opposes
any intervention to prohibit ISP traffic on the line side of the
switch. They, too, indicated that the single largest difficulty
encountered is the Centrex termination fees charged by Bell
Atlantic to cancel Centrex contracts. FCG proposes that the
Commission mandate a waiving of Centrex cancellation fees for
ISPs, even if ISPs purchase digital services from one of BA's new
competitors, in order to speed up migration to the trunk side of
the switch. They also requested retroactivity to the beginning of
1998 to reward the proactivity of ISPs that have already made
such migration.
Auditel maintains the issue could have been resolved
several years ago with ISDN if, in fact, BA had proposed to make
it an unmetered tariff and raised the price on it on a monthly
basis. It also maintained that there is plenty of
infrastructure, fiber, and switch capacity, and that the problem
is one of tariffs and cautioned the Commission against special
contracts as a solution. Sugar River Valley Online maintains the
problem is that the public telephone network is overburdened due
to unlimited usage by both some Internet users as well as
unlimited calling telephone tariffs. They suggested a reasonable
base for a reasonable amount of hours used and then a per minute
rate in addition to the base rate.
C. Office of Consumer Advocate
The OCA is concerned that Bell Atlantic may have a
business motivation in there being a lack of adequate service.
The OCA also stated it wants to make sure that low income and
fixed income customers do not pay for the improvements associated
with what OCA described as discretionary service.
D. Staff
Commission Staff indicated that while it has no intent
to restrict Internet usage, there needs to be a resolution to the
issues and a more efficient use of the network for voice and
Internet customers and others. The primary concern, according to
Staff, is public safety, reversal of the deterioration of
customer service, and determination of who should be responsible
for the costs to achieve these results.
III. COMMISSION ANALYSIS
A. Intervention
There having been no objection, all of the requests for
intervention received by the date of the pre-hearing conference
are hereby granted. Late filed requests for intervention were
received from Sugar River Valley Online, TTLC and Vitts, all of
which were represented at the Prehearing Conference and were
given leave to file petitions to intervene by the Hearing Officer
until the date of this Order. A late filed petition was also
received from NEVD of New Hampshire, LLC. Those interventions
are also granted.
B. Procedural Schedule
After the Prehearing Conference, the Parties and Staff
met in a lengthy technical session to discuss the issues
presented. An agreement was reached to proceed initially in a
collaborative format rather than a formal proceeding. The
Parties and Staff agreed that all data requests of Bell Atlantic
- New Hampshire would be sent to Staff and BA by March 12, 1999
and would be posted on the Commission's WebSite. On March 29,
1999, at 9:30 a.m., the parties and Staff will meet in a
technical session at which BA will respond to the data requests.
A second technical session on April 13, 1999 will be held at
which BA will present its proposed solution and responses to any
further technical session data requests and to decide how to
proceed further.
Based upon the foregoing, it is hereby
ORDERED, that the above procedural schedule is adopted
and the interventions are granted.
By order of the Public Utilities Commission of New
Hampshire this fifth day of April, 1999.
Douglas L. Patch Susan S. Geiger Nancy Brockway
Chairman Commissioner Commissioner
Attested by:
Thomas B. Getz
Executive Director and Secretary