Successful IP Transition Trials Could Lead to Shutdown of TDM Services in Trial Areas
The IP transition order FCC members are to vote on Thursday will okay the types of trials AT&T has suggested, where customers in a service area will be transitioned from legacy TDM to IP services, agency officials told us. The order approves and recognizes the benefits for doing trials, which include helping the commission understand the impact of technology transitions on end users, the officials said.
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The trial process will have three stages, and if each stage is successful, could lead to TDM networks in the area being completely shut down and being replaced by IP networks, officials said. In the first stage, a company may seek approval for a trial in which any new customer in an area will be offered only an IP service -- wireless or wireline, depending on what the company wants to propose, officials said. No existing customer who wants to maintain legacy service could be forced off in the first phase, they said. The commission is seeking initial proposals within a month, and will seek comment on those proposals.
In the second stage, after a period of time, the telco may seek commission approval to transition the remaining legacy TDM customers to IP-based service, agency officials said. During this time, as expected (CD Jan 29 p3), the companies would still be required to maintain their legacy TDM network, officials said.
In the third and final stage, once all customers in an area are on the IP service and everything’s working properly, the companies could seek permission to shut down their TDM network, officials said. That would proceed under a typical Communications Act Section 214 process, they said.
Another section of the draft item involves “targeted experiments” beyond service-based experiments, agency officials said: The FCC plans to approve a numbering testbed that looks at the future of numbering, and how it should work in an IP environment. Another project will make funding available for trials and research and development on improving accessibility to the network for people with disabilities, officials said. That project would invite experiment proposals that would make use of funds freed up from the existing Telecommunications Relay Services Fund, officials said.
A final experiment would use existing funding from Connect America Fund reserves to look at ways to deploy networks in a competitive process in rural high-cost areas, agency officials said. The experiments are not meant to replace the existing USF, but to inform ways in which the competitive process might work where there is no provider today, they said. It will be open to ILECs or other entities that could demonstrate ways to deploy wireless or wireline high-capacity networks, officials said.