Critical Facilities Administration Service

All New York certified facilities-based telecommunications carriers must offer Critical Facilities Administration (CFA) Service. Carriers operating purely on a resale basis are encouraged to offer CFA. The above links to model tariff language for TSP contain the same requirements as shown below. Commission requirements concerning CFA have been specified in two Orders issued on July 28, 2004, and October 26, 2004 in Case 03-C-0922 - Proceeding on Motion of the Commission to Examine Telephone Network Reliability.

Program Overview

• Facilities-based carriers are responsible to provide data on the physical path of qualified circuits to customers who request such information. Such carriers are required to maintain facilities associated with qualified circuits in such a manner as to ensure that notification of a change in the physical routing of a qualifying circuit is communicated quickly to the affected customer, and the physical path data promptly updated. Such carriers will maintain the data and establish appropriate methods of identification and authentication to secure the data and restrict access by each customer to information relative to that customer's qualifying circuits.
   
• Customers are required to demonstrate for each qualifying circuit that the circuit has been registered under the federal Telecommunications Service Priority program in order to participate.

Customer Obligations

Customers participating under the Critical Facilities Administration program will be required to:

• Identify critical facilities by enrolling circuits in the federal Telecommunications Service Priority program, and demonstrating the sponsorship of a federal agency supporting the designation of those circuits as qualifying under the federal Telecommunications Service Priority program. Such circuits will be referred to as "qualifying circuits."
   
• Subscribe to the Critical Facilities Administration service offered by their carrier, and identify which qualifying circuits it wishes to enroll in the service. Such circuits will be referred to as "subscribed circuits."

Carrier Obligations

Facilities-based carriers will be obligated to identify the physical path of each subscribed circuit as follows:

• Physical path information will be provided by reference to the latitude and longitude coordinates of suitable points along the circuit's path (e.g., cable entrances to buildings, manholes, riser poles, crossboxes, carrier equipment cabinets, and other circuit access points in the outside plant of the carrier) so as to allow the customer to ascertain with a reasonable degree of accuracy the actual physical path of each subscribed circuit.
   
• Physical path information for newly provisioned subscribed circuits is to be available to the customer within 5 business days after the circuit has been installed, and within 15 business days for existing, in-place subscribed circuits.
   
• Any planned moves, changes, or rearrangements that affect the physical path of a subscribed circuit are to be communicated at least 24 hours in advance to the customer, and information related to a move, change, or rearrangement that was as a result of unplanned activity is to be provided within 24 hours of the change.
   
• Updated information regarding the revised physical path of subscribed circuits would be available to the customer within 5 business days for planned actions, and within 15 business days for unplanned activities.
   
• Provision of the service would be suspended altogether in the instance of a major telephone outage. Once restored to service, current physical path information for a subscribed circuit would be developed and made available to the customer within ninety days of the restoration of service.
   
• The carrier must establish a secure database or other means that would allow the customer to obtain information of the physical path for only its subscribed circuits, subject to appropriate authentication and authorization. Where practicable, the information should be made available on a 24 hour by seven day basis.
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Rates

Rates for CFA are based upon the time required to collect the circuit path data.

The company will give the customer a good faith estimate of the time period needed to perform the requested service. The customer will be billed those charges, along with the tariff charges established by any connecting carrier for the service.