Each utility shall provide telephone service to the public in its service area in accordance with its tariffs on file with the Commission. The quality of the service shall meet or exceed the standards set forth in these regulations. When a utility fails to meet any of the standard service levels listed below in an exchange or reporting entity in any month, the service data for the standard not met in that exchange shall be reported to the Commission: Each utility shall provide operator-assisted service for all exchanges at all hours. In each exchange area, the utility shall provide at least one coin telephone available to the public at all hours. This coin telephone shall be prominently located and shall be properly maintained, equipped with dialing instructions and a directory, and lighted at night. The utility shall also establish other public telephone service at locations where the public convenience will be served. Each utility shall provide equipment and facilities designed and engineered in accordance with realistic forecasts of subscriber demand and shall maintain a stock of associated equipment adequate to meet the demand. Eighty-five percent of regular service orders installation shall normally be completed within 5 working days. The intervals commence with the receipt of application unless a later date is requested by the applicant. Installation of local exchange regrade service shall normally be completed not later than 30 days after the customer has made application for a different class of service, except when the customer requests or accepts a later date. In the event of the utility's inability to so complete the order, the customer shall be advised as under COMAR 20.45.04.09A. Appointment Met. If the utility establishes an appointment for the installation of service with the customer, the rate of appointments met may not be less than 88 percent of the total utility established appointments for single-line exchange service and 82 percent of the total utility established appointments for multi-line local exchange service per month within an entity. Each utility shall establish practices for operators and representatives with the objective of providing efficient and pleasing service to the customers. Operators and representatives shall be instructed so as to be courteous, considerate, and efficient in handling all matters and to comply with the provisions of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, in maintaining the secrecy of communications. The Company shall maintain adequate personnel and equipment to assure that operator answering performance is provided as follows based upon a sampling of calls over a 1-month period for those offices sufficient in size to provide a statistically reliable service measurement sample: An “answer” means that the operator or representative of the utility is ready to render assistance or ready to accept the information necessary to process the call, or both. An acknowledgement that the customer is waiting on the line may not suffice to constitute an “answer”. Answering time studies shall be made, utilizing recognized sampling techniques, and a monthly summarization prepared with respect to each operator office or large team complex for their various classes of calls. Answering time recorders shall be installed or adequate service observing measurement shall be established in all toll centers and higher rank offices. The utility shall have facilities which will allow 98.5 percent of all calls placed to receive a dial tone within 3 seconds. As a minimum acceptable level of performance, 95 payment of attempts during the average busy season busy hour shall receive a dial tone within 3 seconds. The busy season shall be the period composed of those months of highest load for the particular service being considered. The busy season shall ordinarily include 3 months, not necessarily consecutive. The beginning of the “month” may be other than the beginning of the calendar month, if good cause and consistency can be shown. The busy hour shall be the 2 consecutive half-hours during which the greatest volume of traffic is handled in the central office. Different days of the week may have different busy hours, but the hour selected for any day shall be used on that day of the week for the entire busy season. Reasonable Call Completion Rate. Reasonable call completion rates to establish “minimum acceptable levels of service”, based on observed results of properly dialed calls in all offices sufficient in size to provide a statistically reliable service measurement sample, shall be: Local calls by customers—94 percent completions; DDD calls by customers—(outgoing trunks) 94 percent completions; DDD calls by customers—(incoming trunks) 96 percent completions. For purposes of computing the completion rates suggested, properly dialed completed calls shall include: Reaching the number that was dialed; Reaching a busy condition at the dialed number; Reaching a “ring, no answer” at the dialed number; Terminating the call before it has routed to the dialed number; Reaching intercept correctly. Outgoing toll trunks (dial 0, 0+, and 1+), toll completing trunking, and final route inter-toll trunking shall be designed so that not more than 1 percent of the attempts to connect to a toll trunk in the busy season, busy hour will encounter an all-trunks busy condition. As a minimum acceptable level of performance, incoming matching loss may not exceed 5 percent in the average busy season, busy hour. Recognized engineering practices shall be utilized to determine equipment provisions required to meet the objectives mentioned in this regulation. Every originated call shall result in one of the following: The call shall progress to the number dialed, the calling customer shall receive an indication of ringing, and the called telephone shall ring; The call shall progress to the number dialed and, if busy, the calling customer shall receive a busy signal; The call shall progress only part of the way through the switch train and, having reached an overflow condition, shall receive an appropriate overflow signal, which can be readily differentiated from a subscriber busy signal; A call to vacant code level, code, or subscriber number shall receive an adequate and appropriate intercept where facilities permit. Telephone utilities shall furnish and maintain adequate plant, equipment, and facilities to provide satisfactory transmission of communications between customers in their service area. Transmission shall be at adequate volume levels and free of excessive distortion. Levels of noise and cross-talk shall be such as not to impair communications. It is recognized that, due to extreme environmental conditions and economic factors, it is normal to have a small percentage of items that exceed objective levels. If the loss exceeds the stated objectives by more than 4 db, or the noise exceeds the stated objectives by more than 10 db, these cases of excess loss or noise shall be considered as troubles requiring correction. Reference Conditions. The transmission objectives set forth in these regulations are based upon the use of standard telephone sets connected to a 48-volt dial central office and measured at a frequency of 1000 hertz. This does not preclude future designs based on new instruments or voltages other than 48 volts, provided that equivalent or better transmission is obtained. Loop Resistance. A subscriber line shall have a loop resistance not exceeding the operating design of the associated central office equipment. Amplifiers and long line adaptors may be used to extend the central office equipment design limits; however, the objectives of these regulations shall be met. Permissible Loss on Subscriber Loops. The maximum transmission loss objective of any one subscriber loop shall be 11 db. Subscribers' loops with losses in excess of 15 dB shall be considered as trouble requiring correction. The maximum transmission loss objective between any two subscribers on separate lines in the same central office shall be 22 db. Permissible Loss on Local Interoffice Trunks. The maximum overall transmission loss objective, including the loss in terminating equipment on local interoffice trunks, shall be 7 db. Local interoffice trunks with losses in excess of 11 db shall be considered as troubles requiring correction. Permissible Loss on Toll Trunks. The maximum overall transmission loss objective, including the loss in terminating equipment for toll connecting trunks, shall be 4 db. Toll connecting trunks with losses in excess of 8 db shall be considered as troubles requiring correction. The maximum loss in intertoll trunks shall be consistent with the requirements of a nationwide switching plan. Permissible Noise on Subscribers' Lines. Subscribers' lines with noise in excess of 40 db above reference level shall require correction. “Reference level” is defined as 90 db (referred to as one milliwatt). Measuring devices, methods and practices, recognized generally by the communications industry as being adequate for the purposes used, shall be utilized to obtain directly or to allow calculation of results with respect to the service objectives stated in these regulations. When equipment arrangements permit, each utility shall have an objective of attaining at least 300 local dial service measurements per month on all originating entities serving more than 10,000 main, equivalent, and centrex C.O. stations, and on all originating entities serving more than 5,000 main, equivalent, and centrex C.O. main stations that are a part of a local dial network of 15,000 main stations. Each utility shall provide, maintain, and operate a dial tone speed measuring device for all originating entities serving more than 3,000 main, equivalent, and centrex C.O. main stations. Each utility shall provide, maintain, and operate load or servicing indicating devices on originating equipment for all entities not equipped with a dial tone speed measuring device. Each utility shall measure the answering time at all customer contact locations (repair service, business offices, toll operator office, and so forth) that receive more than 200 contacts per average business day. A performance record for each Central Office or other appropriate entity shall be established and kept current and shall show applicable service results hourly, daily, monthly, or otherwise as appropriate. Each utility shall take appropriate measures to assure that service interruptions shall be kept to a minimum. Each utility shall make provisions to meet emergencies resulting from failure of power, sudden and prolonged increases in traffic, absences of employees, or from fire, storm, or similar contingencies. The utility shall inform its employees as to procedures to be followed in the event of these contingencies in order to prevent or mitigate interruption or impairment of service. Each central office equipped with an emergency generator shall contain, as a minimum, 4 hours of battery reserve based on the busy hour load. Offices not so equipped shall contain, as a minimum, 8 hours of battery reserve based on the busy hour load and shall have access to a portable generator capable of providing power in the event of power failure. Outside facilities shall be so constructed as to be minimally susceptible to interruptions due to weather conditions. If service must be interrupted for the purpose of working on the lines or equipment, reasonable effort shall be made to perform the work at a time which shall cause minimal inconvenience to subscribers. When the interruption will be of a significant duration, the affected customers shall be notified and emergency services shall be available, as required, for the duration of the interruption. Each telephone utility shall inform the Commission, as soon as possible, of any occurrence of an unusual nature which apparently may result in prolonged and serious interruption of service to a large number of customers. Each utility shall keep records of interruptions of service and shall make an analysis of the records for the purpose of determining steps to be taken to prevent recurrence of the interruptions. These records should include the following information concerning the interruptions: Cause; Date and time; and Duration. The records for each unattended central office shall show interruptions which required attention to restore service, with the estimated time of interruption. Repair service shall be available daily, including Sunday, to all customers in the case of a service interruption to any main station telephone, consistent with the personal safety of utility personnel. Service shall be maintained in such a manner as is required to assure that the rate of customer trouble reports in a district service center is no greater than 8.0 per 100 stations per month. Allowance for Interruptions. If the service is interrupted, appropriate action shall be taken to the extent possible to restore service within 24 hours following notification by the customer. Appropriate adjustment or refunds shall be made for a telephone out of service longer than 24 hours, per utility's tariff. Each utility shall adopt a program of periodic tests, inspections, and other preventive maintenance activity to provide safe, adequate, and reliable service. Each utility shall maintain or have access to test facilities enabling it to determine the operating and transmission capabilities of all equipment and facilities, both for routine maintenance and for fault location. Each utility shall maintain or have access to the necessary facilities, instruments, and equipment for testing its metering and recording equipment and shall adopt appropriate practices for the periodic testing of its operation. Each utility shall test any usage recording devices upon written request of any customer, based upon reasonable grounds and provided the test is not requested more frequently than once each 12 months without clear cause. The utilities shall, when requested, furnish appropriate information concerning location of underground facilities, in order to prevent any interruption of service to telephone customers. Nothing in this regulation is intended to affect the responsibility, liability, or legal rights of any party under applicable laws or statutes. Public Utilities Article, §§2-121, 5-101, and 5-303, Annotated Code of Maryland Effective date: January 1, 1976 (Order No. 61496) Regulation .03 amended effective March 18, 2013 (40:5 Md. R. 412) Regulation .07F amended effective January 23, 1981 (8:2 Md. R. 117) Regulation .11B amended effective January 1, 1976 (Order No. 61570) Regulations .11 and .12 repealed effective July 31, 1995 (22:15 Md. R. 1121)