Common use of Trunk Groups Clause in Contracts

Trunk Groups. 3.2.1 One-way trunk groups for ancillary services (e.g. mass calling) can be established between the Parties. Ancillary trunk groups will utilize Signaling System 7 (SS7) or multi-frequency (MF) signaling protocol, with SS7 signaling preferred whenever possible. The originating Party will have administrative control of one-way trunk groups. 3.2.2 The Parties agree that two-way trunk groups for local, IntraLATA and InterLATA traffic shall be established between a Charter switch and a CenturyTel End Office switch pursuant to the terms of this Article. Trunks will utilize Signaling System 7 (SS7) or multi-frequency (MF) signaling protocol, with SS7 signaling being used whenever possible. Two-way trunking for Local Traffic will be jointly provisioned and maintained, with each Party being responsible for costs on its side of the POI. The costs associated with transporting Information Access Traffic and/or ISP-Bound Traffic to Charter shall be the sole responsibility of Charter. For administrative consistency, Charter will have control for the purpose of issuing Access Service Requests (ASRs) on two-way groups. Either Party will also use ASRs to request changes in trunking. Both Parties reserve the right to issue ASRs, if so required, in the normal course of business. 3.2.3 Notwithstanding the preceding paragraph 3.2.2 above, the Parties recognize that certain technical and billing issues may necessitate the use of one-way trunking. Either Party may provision its own one-way trunks. Regardless of whether one-way or two-way facilities are provisioned, each Party is individually responsible to provide facilities to the POI. If one- way trunking is used, CenturyTel shall only be financially responsible for deploying and maintaining one-way trunks between CenturyTel’s switch and the POI. The Parties will negotiate the appropriate trunk configuration, whether one-way or two-way giving consideration to relevant factors, including but not limited to, existing network configuration, administrative ease, any billing system and/or technical limitations and network efficiency. Any disagreement regarding appropriate trunk configuration shall be subject to the dispute resolution process in Section 20 of Article III. 3.2.4 Separate local trunk groups may be established based on billing, signaling, and network requirements. The following is the current list of traffic types that require separate trunk groups, unless specifically stated otherwise in this Agreement: 3.2.4.1 911/E911 trunks; 3.2.4.2 Mass Calling Trunks, if applicable; and 3.2.4.3 Toll Free Service trunks where Charter provides such service to its customers. 3.2.5 To the extent a Party combines Local Traffic and Jointly-Provided Switched Access Traffic on a single trunk group for indirect delivery through a Tandem, the originating Party, at the terminating Party’s request, will declare quarterly Percentages of Local Use (PLUs). Such PLUs will be verifiable with either call summary records utilizing Calling Party Number (CPN) information for jurisdictionalization of traffic or call detail samples. Call detail or direct jurisdictionalization using CPN information may be exchanged in lieu of PLU, if it is available. The terminating Party should apportion per minute of use (MOU) charges appropriately. 3.2.6 All traffic received by CenturyTel on the direct End Office trunk group from Charter must terminate in the End Office, i.e. no Tandem switching will be performed in the End Office. All traffic received by Charter on the direct End Office trunk group from CenturyTel must terminate in the End Office, i.e., no Tandem switching will be performed in the End Office. Where End Office functionality is provided in a remote End Office of a host/remote configuration, the Interconnection for that remote End Office is only available at the host switch. The number of digits to be received by the terminating Party shall conform to standard industry practices; but in no case shall the number of digits be less than seven (7). 3.2.7 Charter and CenturyTel shall, where applicable, make reciprocally available, the required trunk groups to handle different traffic types. Charter and CenturyTel will support the provisioning of trunk groups that carry combined or separate Local Traffic. Notwithstanding the above, CenturyTel requires separate trunk groups from Charter to originate and terminate Non-Local Traffic calls and to provide Switched Access Service to IXCs. To the extent Charter desires to have any IXCs originate or terminate switched access traffic to or from Charter, using jointly provided switched access facilities routed through a CenturyTel access tandem, it is the responsibility of Charter to arrange for such IXC to issue an ASR to CenturyTel to direct CenturyTel to route the traffic. If CenturyTel does not receive an ASR from the IXC, CenturyTel will initially route the switched access traffic between the IXC and Charter. If the IXC subsequently indicates that it does not want the traffic routed to or from Charter, CenturyTel will not route the traffic. 3.2.7.1 Each Party agrees to route traffic only over the proper jurisdictional trunk group. 3.2.7.2 Each Party shall only deliver traffic over the local connection trunk groups to the other Party’s Access Tandem for those publicly-dialable NXX Codes served by End Offices that directly subtend the Access Tandem or to those wireless service providers that directly subtend the Access Tandem. 3.2.7.3 Neither Party shall route Switched Access Service traffic over local connection trunks, or Local Traffic over Switched Access Service trunks. 3.2.8 The following trunk groups shall be used to exchange Local Traffic between Charter and CenturyTel. 3.2.8.1 Local Interconnection Trunk Group(s) in Each Exchange Direct End Office Trunking 3.2.8.1.1 The Parties shall establish direct End Office primary high usage Local Interconnection Trunk Groups for the exchange of Local Traffic where actual traffic volume reaches twenty four (24) or more trunks, for three consecutive months, as described in Section 2.2.2 of this Article. 3.2.9 Notwithstanding any other provision of this Agreement, neither Party is required to port a telephone number to a location outside of the geographic area associated with the Rate Center assigned to such telephone number. 3.2.10 Charter shall provide all SS7 signaling information including, without limitation, charge number and originating line information (OLI). For terminating FGD, CenturyTel will pass all SS7 signaling information including, without limitation, CPN if it receives CPN from FGD carriers. All privacy indicators will be honored. Where available, network signaling information such as transit network selection (TNS) parameter, carrier identification codes (CIC) (CCS platform) and CIC/OZZ information (non-SS7 environment) will be provided by Charter wherever such information is needed for call routing or billing. The Parties will follow all OBF adopted standards pertaining to TNS and CIC/OZZ codes. 3.2.11 High Volume (HV) / Mass Calling (Choke)