End-to-End TSP Service

Overview

Where possible, service users and vendors should seek ensure that a National Security and Emergency Preparedness telecommunications service receive priority treatment across its entire length. However, certain considerations may affect whether this will be possible.

Responsibility for Customer Premises Equipment and Customer Premises Wiring

Service vendors regulated by the FCC (in other words, common carriers) are responsible for providing priority treatment on the transmission portion of an NS/EP service, i.e., the portion of a service on the regulated side of the demarcation point. The demarcation point separates service user ownership or operational control from the common carrier.

Service vendors that provide customer premises equipment and customer premises wiring are not required by the FCC to provide priority treatment to the customer premises equipment/customer premises wiring. customer premises equipment and customer premises wiring are, however, essential components of end-to-end connectivity and vital to a TSP service. The service user, therefore, must:

• Ensure that customer premises equipment and/or customer premises wiring are available by the requested service due date
• Ensure (through contractual means or otherwise) priority treatment for customer premises equipment and/or customer premises wiring necessary for end-to-end service continuity. This priority treatment must be at least equal to that required of the service vendor on the transmission portion of the service.

Nonregulated Telecommunications Services

A government agency or other nonregulated service vendor providing NS/EP services may also be recognized as a service vendor. Services provided by these service vendors are bound by the FCC TSP Program rules if the services are connected to TSP services provided by a common carrier. The procedures described in this website must be followed to obtain restoration and/or provisioning priorities, and such services must be provisioned and restored in accordance with TSP Program rules and regulations.

International Extension of the TSP Program

Sometimes a service user requires a TSP service that extends outside U.S. borders. It is desirable all segments of the service receive priority treatment. However, the TSP Program applies only to the U.S. portion of commercially provided, international telecommunications services. Service users may obtain a TSP assignment for the U.S. portion of an international service, which usually extends to a hypothetical midpoint of the circuit.

Service Vendor Capabilities

TSP service users may request priorities on any service offering for which the service vendor is capable of providing priority treatment such as local switched service, long distance service, cellular service, and virtual networks. Two factors determine the specific types of services included in the TSP Program. The first is whether a service vendor can provision or restore the service on a priority level basis. The second is whether there is some capability (on the vendor's side) to identify the circuits or service. For example, a vendor can provide priority provisioning for dedicated private line services or the dedicated portion of any switch service. Vendors can also clearly identify and restore these services on a priority basis.

Preemption

If suitable spare services are unavailable, the TSP Program rules authorize service vendors to preempt existing services when necessary to provision and/or restore TSP services. Although preemption requires no action from service users, they should be aware of what preemption entails. Vendors may preempt existing services without TSP assignments to restore TSP services, or they may preempt existing TSP services to restore TSP services with a higher priority level. If it is necessary to preempt TSP services, vendors will select services for preemption in the inverse order of priority level assignment. Service vendors that preempt services will make their best effort to notify the user of the preempted service and state the reason for and estimated duration of the preemption. Preemption is a last resort for service vendors, so service users need not expect it to occur frequently.

Control services and orderwires that a service vendor wholly owns and are essential to operating the vendor's network have priority over all other services, including TSP services, and are not subject to preemption to restore or provision TSP services. Control services or orderwires that one service vendor leases from another vendor are eligible for a TSP assignment and receive the same treatment as other TSP service

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