ILL. 2ND AMERITECH STATE TO SUSPEND OSS TESTS OVER DATA ACCURACY CONCERNS
Ill. became 2nd Ameritech state to suspend operation support system (OSS) testing because test administrator KPMG Consulting complained it lacked confidence in validity of Ameritech’s raw input data on OSS performance. Ill. Commerce Commission (ICC) “paused” Ameritech test until Jan. 3 so agency could look into situation. Pause was in response to KPMG project managers’ complaints to ICC earlier this month that Ameritech was making “inadequate” efforts to provide accurate data on how well its systems were handling CLEC service orders.
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ICC’s telecom staff project mgr. for tests, Nancy Weber, recommended that KPMG not move on to next phase of testing program until doubts about validity of Ameritech’s data on timely order processing were settled. Otherwise, she said, parties could waste months on tests whose results would be invalid. Ill. action comes on heels of Wis. PSC order temporarily suspending that state’s OSS testing because of similar KPMG problems with Ameritech’s data.
Ameritech spokesman said company had had questions about KPMG’s testing methodology and data requests that it considered to be “outside the scope” of tests. Ameritech Ill. Pres. Carrie Hightman said problems involved mere handful of many technical functions being tested. She said she was “100 percent confident” that concerns and problems “absolutely will be cleared up” quickly and satisfactorily for all parties. She said Ameritech employees were working with KPMG to address situation and doubted test pause would cause major delay in company’s Ill. long distance application.
OSS tests are continuing in Ohio, Mich. and Ind., but regulators were keeping close eye on situation and said they would be prepared to halt testing if problems became severe. Allen Francis, Ohio PUC’s telecom section dir., said agency had hired KPMG for its technical expertise and it would be up to KPMG to request halt in testing. He said there have been some questions raised about testing process, but at this point there had been no move to suspend Ohio test.
Ill. Coalition for Competitive Telecom, which represents CLEC interests, urged ICC to halt Ameritech’s OSS testing for 90 days and conduct full investigation into data problems. Continuing testing under current circumstances would be waste of everyone’s time and money, CLEC group said.