scope:

GENERAL

This document describes the rules that govern the mechanized transmission of data between entities ordering and providing access services. This document supports the Access Service Ordering Guidelines Industry Support Interface (ASOG Document) which describes the industry agreed upon guidelines for the ordering of access services.

The ASR Mechanized Interface Specifications contains file structures, rules for mechanized transmission and acceptance and confirmation of data as necessitated by the ASR. It also provides error conditions for systems that support the provisioning of Access Services.

In an effort to insure that all possible customers and providers of Access Services are addressed in all issues and documentation maintained by or on behalf of the Ordering & Billing Forum, two terms describing these customers and providers will be used:

• customer

• provider

Throughout this document, within the record layouts, the terms IC (Interexchange Carrier), AC (Access Customer), EC (Exchange Carrier) and AP (Access Provider) may be used to describe the categories customer and provider.

Their use, however, does not imply exclusivity within the customer and provider categories.