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November 26, 2008

To MSA, Or Not To MSA?

It's not only the location of where your charges are occurring that matters, it's also where you look in the tariff that counts. Many larger telcos have two different sets of pricing: regular, and "metropolitan statistical area" or MSA. Even within an MSA there can be multiple levels, usually referred to as full service relief and limited service relief areas, that can determine which pricing scheme is used. Making sure that you are using the correct section of a tariff to verify rates can be a huge time saver down the road.

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November 25, 2008

Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Have you ever wanted to find a rate or a description for a USOC you see on a bill? It can be a little like finding a needle in a haystack, right? First you have the fact that many vendors use the same USOC to bill for many different rate elements. For instance, 1L5SX is a mileage charge which can assessed on a DS0, DS1, DS3 on multiple types of service. Try searching on that USOC and you'll be digging through the results for days.

So, how can you narrow down your search and try to find exactly the rate or description you're looking for? First of all, use your jurisdictional information to determine if this is going to be an FCC or State tariff. Most tariff sites have the capability to only search for a USOC within FCC or one state. Adding in this search criteria will greatly reduce the number of results you receive. Secondly, see if you can narrow down your Vendor. Some Vendors have been through so many acquisitions that it can be hard to know which name to search on, but after working with the Vendors a while, you can compile a list of applicable vendor names.

One thing to look out for when you are searching for USOCs is that zeroes and o's are often mixed up on the billing. So, while your bill may say '1OXTX', what is actually in the tariff is '10XTX'. Also, make sure that you are looking at the most up-to-date tariff information. Vendors routinely update their tariffs and you don't want to be looking at the wrong rate.

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November 21, 2008

Something Just Doesn’t Look Right

When I first began auditing, the company I worked for had very little auditing experience from which to draw. My degree is in mathematics and one of the skills that you learn when studying math is pattern recognition. That skill has served me very well in auditing. I was able to focus my questions, learn telecom, and find disputes on my own by merely recognizing how circuits that seemed to be exactly the same were billing differently. I strongly encourage any new auditor to really analyze circuits to recognize patterns and recognize those circuits that do not match the pattern of the others.

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A Mile is a Mile

Recently we audited mileage for a client. We noticed several vendors had mileage that was off by only 1 mile. When you look at this on an individual circuit basis, it can seem like an insignificant amount to dispute. However, so many circuits were off by 1 mile that the amount ended up being quite significant. The vendor agreed that they were incorrect and credited the overbilled amounts. So if you see that your mileage is off a mile, dispute it …because a mile is a mile after all.

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November 20, 2008

Location, Location, Location

Vendors often mispopulate the LSOC (LOCAL SERVING OFFICE CLLI) in relation to the physical address on the invoice. This can result in incorrect mileage assessments. It can be worth it to check the physical address of the circuit location and see if the LSOC assigned to it by the vendor makes sense in relation to it. This should be especially done on high mileage circuits.

Example: Your LSOC CLLI is PTLDOR69DS0 (Portland, Oregon) and your street address at that location is 100 Lexington Avenue Tigard, Oregon.

This is a very manual stare and compare audit, but one that is worth doing from time to time.

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