Petition to Intervene

February 19, 1999

MV Communications, Inc., an Internet Service Provider in New Hampshire, is seeking to intervene on the Public Utilities Commission's docket "Order of Notice DT 99-020" , further identified as having an Internet URL of

http://www.puc.state.nh.us/99020ont.html :

We also request, as provided in the terms of the docket, a stenographic transcription of the Prehearing Conference.

We understand that the Commission has some problems to address and we expect that we can have a productive role in this effort. MV Communications has been providing Internet service in one form or another since before we registered our Internet domain name in 1987, and we have some well-developed perspectives of the needs of an ISP business, of the technical issues involved in operating an ISP, and of the needs of New Hampshire residents who use ISP services. That said, in this Petition we address the specific items in the Notice and some of the ways that they affect our business and our customers:

• "a prohibition of Internet Service Provider (ISP) traffic on the line side of the switch,"

  This is vague, since ISP traffic is carried on both the connection provided to the ISP and to the connection provided to the customer. We interpret this to refer only to the connection between an ISP and the LEC over which the ISP accepts calls from customers, and make the following observations:

  • Bell Atlantic is often unable to provide the requested trunk-side circuits to ISPs in a timely fashion (we have been quoted lead times in the neighborhood of one year in major New Hampshire cities such as Manchester), or at all, or in realistic quantities;

  • Features sometimes desired by ISPs, such as Centrex intercom calling, are not made available on trunk-side circuits;

  • Some New Hampshire residents (whether at home or elsewhere), depending on how they are served within their local exchange, experience substandard or even unusable results when calling trunk-side lines at an ISP. Until technical problems causing this are addressed, the existence of ISPs with analog dialup modems (i.e., line-side) is necessary for these people to access the Internet.

  Clearly, for these reasons and others, our business would be impacted by such a prohibition (as would resident New Hampshire Internet users whose interests we are in a position to represent and understand), and we should be included in this discussion.

• "development of a tariff designed to encourage ISP customers to purchase service that is provisioned from the trunk side of the switch,"

  We believe this could be a positive step; however we also believe that any such tariff should take into account the realities of the situation as it pertains to ISPs, and the safeguarding of honest competition and the interests of the independent ISPs. Presenting and guarding our perspectives and interests requires our active participation, and we consider it important that we be given intervener status on that basis.

• "a requirement that ISPs disconnect customers from the network when not actively using the Internet for a specified period of minutes"

  Many of our customers are small businesses and home offices whose only connection to the Internet is via dialup connections. The Internet never closes, and often these kinds of customers need to maintain a context that can be lost by arbitrarily closing their connection. Many of our customers would be adversely affected by such a requirement, and as a direct result, so would our business. We should be involved in helping to shape this kind of policy, as it directly affects our business.

• "and any other potential solution to this problem."

  This provides an opening for other actions which are as not yet envisioned, any one of which could adversely affect our ability to do business. It is important that we be given the ability to be involved in these as-yet-unknown proposals.

We also question to what degree the mere presence of Internet traffic on central switches is directly causing the problems observed by some New Hampshire residents; and we would hope to help see that ALL causes can be identified and that the broadest range of appropriate solutions be considered.

Thank you for your consideration,

Mark E. Mallett
President, MV Communications, Inc.