CenturyLink Proposes IP Transiton trial

trial would be Bandwidth.com and Inteliquent, CenturyLink Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs Melissa Newman told us. The petition said the trial will affect 12 wire centers in Las Vegas. CenturyLink will first recruit business customers to participate voluntarily. Then CenturyLink’s CLEC affiliate will exchange voice traffic that originates and terminates in Nevada in IP format with Bandwidth.com and Inteliquent over commercially negotiated IP interconnection arrangements. CenturyLink will work with the CLECs “to identify any technical, operational and logistic difficulties and work through them collaboratively,” the petition said. CenturyLink is not, as part of the trial, seeking to discontinue any services or requesting a waiver of any commission rules, the petition said. The trial is expected to last six months from the date it's approved, a company spokeswoman told us. Though the company has been investing in expanding broadband, it maintains a TDM network in 37 states, said the filing. Since 2000, incumbent LECs like CenturyLink have lost more than half their access lines as customers switched to cable, wireless, IP-based, and other services, and “many areas served by CenturyLink have reached, or rapidly approach, the ‘tipping point,’” where “continuing provision of those legacy services [is] impractical and inefficient,” said the telco. As the transition progresses, “it will make sense to begin exchanging voice traffic with other providers through VoIP connectivity, rather than existing TDM interconnection arrangements,” the petition said. The proposed trial would complement AT&T’s IP trial in Alabama and Florida, the petition said. AT&T’s trial focuses on the impact to consumers of a transition from TDM to wireline and wireless IP-based voice services, CenturyLink said. “In contrast, CenturyLink’s trial focuses on business customers and the exchange of VoIP traffic.” The trial will look at the impact on both consumers and the company, judging such things as call quality, Newman said. The proposed trial has been in the works since before FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a draft NPRM, to be voted on at the Nov. 21 FCC meeting, on questions about the IP transition. AT&T and the FCC had no comment. The issue is unrelated to concerns CLECs have raised about the retirement of TDM services in the business market, Newman said. A spokeswoman for Windstream, which has raised the concerns, agreed after a first glance with the proposal.