1. STAN REDDEN Vice President - Software Development

2. FCC ISSUES

3. Transition to Bill & Keep regime continues on path for terminating switched access charges and reciprocal compensation Rate of Return Companies: Step 1: July 1, 2012 – reduce rates to 50% of interstate Step 2: July 1, 2013 – reduce rates to interstate parity Step 3: July 1, 2014 – reduce rates by 1/3 of the difference between interstate and $0.005 Step 4: July 1, 2015 – reduce rates by 1/3 of the difference between interstate and $.0005 FCC USF/ICC REFORM 3www.cdg.ws

4. Rate of Return Companies: Step 5: July 1, 2016 – reduce rates to $0.005 Step 6: July 1, 2017 – reduce rates by 1/3 difference between $0.005 and $0.0007 Step 7: July 1, 2018 – reduce rates by 2/3 difference between $0.005 and $0.0007 Step 8: July 1, 2019 – reduce rates to $0.0007 Step 9: July 1, 2020 – Bill and Keep FCC USF/ICC REFORM 4www.cdg.ws

5. Price Cap Companies: Step 1: July 1, 2012 – reduce rates to 50% of interstate Step 2: July 1, 2013 – reduce rates to interstate parity Step 3: July 1, 2014 – reduce rates by 1/3 of the difference between interstate and $0.0007 Step 4: July 1, 2015 – reduce rates by 1/3 of the difference between interstate and $0.0007 Step 5: July 1, 2016 – reduce rates to $0.0007 Step 6: July 1, 2017 – Bill and Keep FCC USF/ICC REFORM 5www.cdg.ws

6. FCC still has not addressed any reforms concerning access charges associated with originating traffic or transport charges for Rate of Return companies, and it does not appear that they have any intention to do so in the near future. Companies should continue to plan on billing/budgeting for these charges going forward. FCC USF/ICC REFORM 6www.cdg.ws

7. The FCC adopted a Tariff Investigation Order and FNPRM, proposing a new regulatory framework for the provisioning Special Access services at its April 28th Open Meeting. The order now refers to Special Access as BDS (Business Data Services). After investigating the largest ILECs, the commission determined that certain aspects of their tariffs to be unjust and unreasonable by: Inhibiting competition for these services. Inhibiting the transition to new technologies. SPECIAL ACCESS REFORM 7www.cdg.ws

8. The order is based on four basic principles: 1.Competition 2.Technology neutral 3.Policies should promote the transition from TDM to IP. 4.Rules should be crafted to meet the needs of both today’s and tomorrow’s marketplace. SPECIAL ACCESS REFORM 8www.cdg.ws

9. Order will make certain term and volume plans that lock customers into a plan illegal and companies in violation of these rules will be required to withdraw these agreements and file new ones within 60 days of the release of the order. Will include de-regulatory measures that will determine if a market is competitive or non competitive. The end of tariffs in all markets for all BDS products. Rules that will safeguard customer pricing in non- competitive markets. FCC is now seeking comments on several issues, and it is their goal to have the new order in place by the end of 2016. SPECIAL ACCESS REFORM 9www.cdg.ws

10. District court for the Northern District of Texas filed an Opinion and Order on November 17 th 2015, concluding that LECs could in fact bill for Switched Access charges on Intra-MTA wireless traffic Dismissed the cases filed by AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, while stating any dispute concerning this issue should be referred to the FCC. Any other recent regulatory updates concerning this issue that you can share? We are interested in hearing about any of your companies experiences/issues in billing this traffic since the ruling was filed? INTRA-MTA RULING 10www.cdg.ws

11. QUESTIONS?

12. 1.Journalize taxes and surcharges for Special Access at EC circuit level Programs AC0490 (Taxes) and AC0495 (Surcharges) currently journalize charges at the bill account level. The temporary (raw) journal file, ATJRNFL, journalizes Special Access charges at EC Circuit and USOC level detail. TDS would like to see taxes and surcharges journalized at the EC Circuit and Rate-ID level also. TDS TELECOM 12www.cdg.ws

13. 2.Add PNUM field to ASPL Promotion Number (PNUM) is an ASR field that identifies the contract tariff option for a pricing promotion plan. It could also be used to internally identify a contract number. Ideally, the PNUM field would be placed on ASPL-1 near the Discount Plan information since many contract type billings are often associated with a discount plan. It may be possible to add this field under the current Reference ID field. If it is not possible to place the PNUM field on ASPL-1 then it could go on ASPL-3 near the Remarks field. TDS TELECOM 13www.cdg.ws

14. From the current ASOG document: TDS TELECOM 14www.cdg.ws

15. 1.Adding of circuits with a future effective date For example, if we know of a circuit that will be effective July 15, 2016, we would like to have the ability to add the circuit today even though the from and thru dates are 05/01/2016-05/31/2016 for this month’s billing (May billing). The billing system would know to look at the effective date on ASPL to create fractional OCCs (July 15-31 st ) when the July billing is processed (from and thru dates of 07/01/2016-07/31/2016). DATATECH 15www.cdg.ws

16. 2.Disconnecting circuits We have had an issue recently when a circuit was disconnected within the current from and thru dates, but we have to wait until the next month’s billing was ready to be processed so that fractional credit OCCs could be created. For example, May billing’s from and thru dates are 05/1- 05/31 and the circuit disconnection is effective 05/15/2016. We would have to wait until the June 2016 billing to disconnect the circuit and create the OCCs. It would be cleaner to be able to disconnect a circuit within the current month’s from and thru dates, therefore not having credit OCCs on the next month’s billing. DATATECH 16www.cdg.ws

17. QUESTIONS?

18. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM

19. CDG is nearing completion of a new Service Order system that is being developed for CenturyLink. System has been in production since February 15th for the legacy CenturyTel properties, and they are looking to cutover the legacy Embarq and Qwest markets to production on August 1. While the system was developed based on CenturyLink business requirements, the application will be made available to other customers as a CABS system option in the future. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 19www.cdg.ws

20. System was designed to: Meet the industry/international standard ASOG (Access Service Order Guideline) requirement in the processing of both mechanized and paper orders. Be seamlessly integrated and maintained within the CDG CABS suite of applications. Be a robust, rules based solution that can meet the changing demands of order processing now and into the future. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 20www.cdg.ws

21. Some of the functionality highlights include: Supports processing of both mechanized and manual/paper orders. Ability to identify Pending vs. Error vs. Completed order status. Ability to post completed orders to CABS production ASPL/ACKU files in ‘real time’ transaction. Supports order Hold status for Out for Billing, Future Dated, and Due to Order Sequence. Automated processing of orders coming out of Hold status. Support auto posting of new orders received. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 21www.cdg.ws

22. Robust, rules based, table driven system. Detailed error description with standard error codes. Online archive of original ‘raw’ orders as received. Ability to determine valid Discount Plan ID. Ability to determine Zone, Price CAP, and Price Zone USOC rating. Ability to determine EO and POP route and associated mileage. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 22www.cdg.ws

23. Archive Browse Screen (SARB) NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 23www.cdg.ws

24. Archive Detail Screens (SARC) SARC-1 contains the base service order information. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 24www.cdg.ws

25. Archive Detail Screens (Continued) SARC-2 contains the detail circuit information. Scrolls forward for as many records as are on file. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 25www.cdg.ws

26. Archive Detail Screens (Continued) SARC-2 (continued) NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 26www.cdg.ws

27. Service Order Browse 14 difference views/browses NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 27www.cdg.ws

28. Service Order Detail Screens SORD contains the base service order information NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 28www.cdg.ws

29. Service Order Detail Screens (Continued) SORN contains the non service and equipment information. Scrolls forward for as many records as are on file. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 29www.cdg.ws

30. Service Order Detail Screens SORS-1 contains the service and equipment information. Browse of EC Circuit IDs for the given service order. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 30www.cdg.ws

31. Service Order Detail Screens (Continued) SORS-2 contains the circuit specific information. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 31www.cdg.ws

32. Service Order Detail Screens (Continued) SORS-2 contains the circuit specific information. Scrolls forward for as many records as are on file. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 32www.cdg.ws

33. Error Detail Screens SER2-1 contains list of warnings and errors when posting a service order to CDG CABS/billing. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 33www.cdg.ws

34. Error Detail Screens (SER2) SER2-2 contains detail information of warning or error code. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 34www.cdg.ws

35. Issues that would need to be addressed before another customer could utilize include: Process to read in a mechanized ASR and convert to CDG input format. Functionality to determine and attach rating USOCs to order (ANCC?). Review of several critical business rules to see if they meet a new customer’s requirements. NEW SERVICE ORDER SYSTEM 35www.cdg.ws

36. NEW ARAT/AUSO FEED INPUT OPTIONS

37. CDG has worked with TDS Telecom on the development on two new feed input processes: One for the ARAT Switched Access rates. And a second for the ASUO USOC rates. Both are similar to other mechanized feed input processes already in place, such as ACFEDSPL (ASPL/ACKU), ACFEDPAY (APAY), and ACFEDDSP (ADSP), and include the following: Standard feed input record layout with data dictionary. Input and edit process. Standard error codes with document. NEW ARAT/AUSO FEED INPUT OPTIONS 37www.cdg.ws

38. Both processes are based on a standard CSV input which mirrors what is created from programs AC0096 (ARAT) and AC0015 (AUSO). The above CSVs can be produced, and then in turn be updated with applicable rate changes to be used as the input source for programs ACFEDRAT (ARAT) and ACFEDUSO (AUSO). This allows for a simpler, more efficient method for updating your rate files for tariffs and contracts. Both processes are now available as purchasable options to CABS. Please contact your Sales Representative if you have any questions. NEW ARAT/AUSO FEED OPTIONS 38www.cdg.ws

39. QUESTIONS?

40. ETHERNET SERVICES

41. CDG has recently became a member of the MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum). This will expand on our industry memberships, which also include the OBF and BOS TRG groups. We are looking to expand our exposure and knowledge on the latest industry issues in the ordering and billing of Ethernet services. Our focus is to continue to refine our CABS capabilities and be a premier provider of ordering and billing solutions for Business Data Services. ETHERNET SERVICES 41www.cdg.ws

42. We are interested in understanding if there are any database, rating, or other functional issues that are causing customers extra work or inaccuracies in billing these services? CDG is also receiving a lot of questions from potential customers about the billing of Small Cell and Dark Fiber. Several customers are already utilizing CDG CABS for billing these services. CDG requested information from the CABS User Group last year (via email) asking for any issues customers have experienced in the billing of Ethernet facilities. ETHERNET SERVICES 42www.cdg.ws

43. Following is a copy of the email sent and the responses received: Issue: Question Concerning Setup/Billing of Ethernet Services CDG has already posed this question to CenturyLink, but wanted to also ask the other members of the CDG CABS User Group for their input on the subject of billing Ethernet services. The question is if the CABS system is forcing you to setup/populate data (such as CLLI’s) that isn’t truly required or associated with Ethernet services vs. what is required for other dedicated circuit types that are mileage based? Are there actual locations coming in on the ASR for Ethernet orders? Are there any fields that you are having to populate with ‘made up’ data in the system to allow Ethernet circuits to be processed in CDG? If there are situations where you are having to create data in order to setup and bill Ethernet circuits, then we would like to review the current industry standards and determine if there are different billing outputs for this service type which would allow us to make some changes to our system requirements and edits for Ethernet. We are also aware that the MEF and ATIS OBF Billing committees have been working on a joint effort to update the ASOG standards for Ethernet orders so it will also be interesting to see if there are any changes to the billing standards in the near future from a result of this work. Thanks for any input you can provide on this issue. Sincerely, Stan Redden CDG ETHERNET SERVICES 43www.cdg.ws

44. Customer Responses: Fairpoint Stan, the response below, we do need Based on to add CLLIs due to the uniqueness of 584 CES we have, but they are valid CLLIs. At this point I believe we are adding valid data for billing on the CES product. Kurt From: Hall, Charles Sent: Monday, August 10, 2015 4:20 PM We don’t have to “make things up” to post billing, but we do have to table EOCLLI/ APOP routes to CO 0584 if the route hasn’t been tabled previously for an Enhanced product. Although CES isn’t mileage sensitive, the EOCLLI does determine the USOC tier, so it’s important that the EOCLLI is accurate…. ETHERNET SERVICES 44www.cdg.ws

45. DataTech Stan, I think it may be best to show you some examples. Ethernet, especially Cell Tower, is very “Site” Centric, Since they have no CLLIs, but yet the CDG system has edits for an 11 char location, we have to work around it and keep the ST in pos. 5-6 of the CLLI. Creating the MRC codes as USOCs is no problem, but the contract terms generally are more based on a rate for the “size” of the circuit, and not USOC based at all. We generally coordinate with our customer and the carrier we will be billing before we ever send a bill so everyone understands how the billing will be, etc. All of the data in the circuit IDs, and the naming of the site “pseudo CLLIs” all have logic, and map to our customer’s as well as the billed carrier’s inventory, and all naming conventions for Circuits, “USOCs” and Sites are all pre-designed so everybody understands what’s going on and for creating a change management logic for MACDs. Basically it is working for us as is, and the value is that it still feeds into their ACM systems in a BDT format for auditing and payment. We would have to temper any relaxation of edits or changes in CSR or bill fields to not compromise BDT and the receiving system. I hope this helps. Jon D. Jones Data Tech, Inc. ETHERNET SERVICES 45www.cdg.ws

46. Frontier From Frontier: The ESP field traditionally comes in blank from our external carriers and our COE Engineering team populates the field. Then when the DD task completes, FTR has code that will send the originating and terminating CLLI Codes on NNI/UNI orders to ensure the proper originating SWC and terminating SWC is on the order and presented to CABS. For EVC orders, the EVCSP CLLIs from each UNI are sent to CABS. Thanks. Jackie “J J” Feicht, Director Special Access Creative Support Solutions, on behalf of Frontier ETHERNET SERVICES 46www.cdg.ws

47. ENMR Currently we have to populate End Office and APOP, which we usually do not have on an Ethernet request. Maybe the service provider should give us that information, but they usually say they don't know it, when we ask. Maybe there systems are not updated and should have it. Definitely a question for the OBF group. We have created a POP of xxxxNM and end office of 000 so we can enter the Ethernet circuits to billing. If we install a circuit in a location where we have a CLLI and end office in the system, we use what exists in billing. Debbie Durham CABS Analyst Plateau and ENMR Telephone Cooperative ETHERNET SERVICES 47www.cdg.ws

48. Creative Support Solutions 1 st Response - From: Marnell Robertson Whatever standards they do follow, the current base Ethernet order and tariff still require location points. The NECA tariff requires some decisions not carried on the order such as greater than or less than 300 ft and whether the offices are not jointly owned but are conjoined, and if both are Ethernet capable. I am sure you will hear that some fields are not required but there are also some new ones that are that will make people think. 2nd Response - From: Marnell Robertson On Ethernet, valid CLLI’s are always required or should be for the establishment of the service but since Ethernet is not distance sensitive that route issue would have to be addressed. One thought I had is that since some charges are based upon whether the service goes to an exchange owned by another company vs another office owned by your Company (NECA tariff) and also whether an office is Ethernet capable or not those issues may need to be addressed for proper charges to be identified. Also the ASR is not providing that information (even in the new requirements) simply because the NECA tariff is different in how they charge for what you and I would think of as meet point vs a non-meet point service. Keep in mind that most smaller companies are not using ASR’s for this. They either are using a form they got from us or one they made up since most of their sales are to non-carriers (schools, banks etc). Which also makes the whole CIC thing come up also. ETHERNET SERVICES 48www.cdg.ws

49. CenturyLink Here is input from Ryan Gfeller: Not sure I fully understand the question. In general, yes, route information is captured based on the SWC (LSOC) of the NMI. The information is looked up against ACLI and provided on the CASS SO and fed through the CABS Feed into CABS ASPL. The must be a route in CABS for it to bill on ASPL. Let me know if this doesn’t answer part of what you’re looking for. ETHERNET SERVICES 49www.cdg.ws

50. QUESTIONS?

51. Other open discussion issues? The next CDG CABS User Group conference call is scheduled for Wednesday, August 17 th, at 10am CST. OPEN DISCUSSION 51www.cdg.ws

52. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION!