scope:

GENERAL

This document outlines Access Service Customer (ASC) and Access Service Providers (ASP) responsibilities for Installation, Testing and Maintenance of Facilities as established by the Network Interconnection Interoperability Forum (NIIF). It is intended to be a living document to aid operations work forces. It does not replace nor supersede Tariffs, Contracts or any other legally binding documents.

The installation and maintenance of SS7, Specials and Feature Group A, Feature Groups B, C, and D are included in separate sections of the NIIF Reference Document, in addition, Network Management Guidelines and Testline Guidelines are included as well.

In addition to other operational and technical agreements made at the Network Interconnection Interoperability Forum, this document is being issued to incorporate the following changes.

This document is a new addition to the Network Interconnection Interoperability Forum library of documentation, exclusively for Facilities.

The ASCs are communications common carriers authorized by the appropriate regulatory bodies, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to provide interLATA, interstate communications and/or by State or Provincial Public Utilities Commissions (PUCs) to provide interLATA, intrastate or intraLATA communications to their end users. The ASCs may request Access Service Providers (ASP) to provide various facilities as addressed in this document to be used as part of the ASC's services. The fundamental principles governing the relations between the ASPs and the ASCs are:

The ASCs have responsibility for the end-to-end service of their end users.

The ASPs will provide facility connectivity to the ASCs as set forth by their Access Service Tariffs and will show no discrimination between different ASCs.