WorldCom, Inc.

WorldCom, Inc. (WorldCom) urges the Commission to recognize that predictive dialers have contributed to the efficiency of commerce, enabling small and large companies to reach more prospective customers who could not be reached through other means. It states that non-profit organizations can realize a much higher return on volunteer hours with the technology than through door-to-door solicitation. WorldCom states that 4% of the U.S. workforce is employed in telemarketing, and that predictive dialers are a tool used in an industry that employed about 5.7 million workers in year 2000. According to WorldCom, more than three-quarters of the customers of MCI bought their services through telemarketing.

WorldCom states that it supports the objective of having an agent or telemarketer available for parties called by a predictive dialer, but it states that there are practical limits on how quickly a service representative can be available to a called party. In WorldCom's case, a predictive dialer generally is based at a call center staffed with the firm's service representative. The dialer is programmed to dial calls to a select database of telephone numbers. When the dialer reaches a live person, the dialer hands off the circuit to an automatic call distributor (ACD), which then delivers the circuit to an available service representative. When the agent picks up the circuit, the ACD has made the agent "available" to the called party. Given this two-stage architecture, WorldCom states that there is an inevitable delay between the time the called party picks up the phone and the instant that an agent can be available. WorldCom states that, in its experience, the electronic signaling process requires about three seconds to notify an agent that a live caller has been reached.

Based on its own experience, WorldCom states that a 0% error rate is technically impossible if predictive dialers are to be used at all. It urges that any calculation of elapsed time from when the called party responds with a voice greeting to the time an agent is available should exclude the time required by the predictive dialer to determine whether the response is from an individual or an answering machine. While noting the industry recommendation that abandoned calls should be kept as close to 0% as possible and in no case exceed 5% of answered calls per day, WorldCom states that it would support a 3% error rate measured over six months. WorldCom also urges a 12-month implementation period to allow utilities time to develop the necessary business rules and facilities to comply with the requirements.

As to record-keeping requirements, WorldCom states that the Commission's objective is to determine whether a utility is using predictive dialing equipment to make telephone connections and, if so, its error rate. However, WorldCom states that the proposed rules seek extremely detailed information that is not related to that objective and would impose an unnecessary operational and financial burden. WorldCom states that reporting requirements that provide details about each call that are irrelevant to the question of whether an agent was available to the called party are overbroad. Moreover, it states that records of the date and time, the number called and the number from which the call originated for every call made, as proposed in the OIR, are not necessary to calculate the error rate. Only calls that were answered by the called party are part of the sample for which an error may have occurred. WorldCom suggests that the date and time of each answered call should not be required on a wholesale level because the programming and storage of that massive amount of information without any clear purpose would be a waste of resources. WorldCom states:

The Commission's purpose in seeking detailed per-call data is not clear from the OIR. If the Commission seeks information in addition to the error reporting proposed by WorldCom, it could direct the affected parties to participate in a staff-led workshop to identify a methodology for collecting and analyzing the necessary information. This information may be obtained by programming the predictive dialer and automatic call distributor to generate certain call records for a given time interval. While it is important that the Commission establish an "acceptable error rate" before July 1, the Commission could take additional time to establish appropriate, reasonable record-keeping requirements to accomplish the goals of the statute and the Commission. (WorldCom Comments, at 15.)

WorldCom argues that a three-year retention period for all records is unnecessarily burdensome since the raw data would accumulate at a rate of tens of millions of records per day. Instead, WorldCom suggests that the information downloaded from the predictive dialer and ACD should be placed in storage for 12 months, and that summary data be retained for two subsequent years.

In its reply comments, WorldCom joins with AT&T in recommending workshops to clarify the scope and extent of its proposed rules, being cognizant of the need not to unduly burden beneficial uses of dialer technology. It cites legislative history in support of its position that the Legislature intended that the Commission set an error rate greater than zero. WorldCom states:

If the Commission were to adopt a zero error rate, it would essentially hold that even one instance in which a representative was not immediately available for a party who has been called by an [automated dialing device] or predictive dialer places the calling party in violation of a Commission rule and state law.... To avoid the possibility of violating a Commission rule, AT&T asserts that it would be forced to reconfigure its call centers [and] would result in its representatives being idle 62% of the time. WorldCom would face a decrease in productivity of almost 50%. (WorldCom Reply Comments, at 7.)

WorldCom states that a major concern is the time that the Commission will allow for parties to revise their call center practices in order to meet the new performance standard. While WorldCom originally had proposed to calculate the error rate on a monthly basis after a six-month development period, it states that it may be more reasonable to calculate the rate on a quarterly basis after the development period. WorldCom states that it is concerned by comments that would define an "abandoned call" as one in which no agent is available to the called party two second after the called party answers the phone. Its own equipment, it states, requires slightly more than three seconds to determine whether a voice signal is generated by a human or a machine. As a threshold matter, it urges that a call cannot be considered abandoned until four seconds have passed from the time the called party speaks. WorldCom contends that much of the problem of hang-up calls will be alleviated when the state implements its do-not-call program in January 2003. In the meantime, it adds, WorldCom and other interexchange carriers maintain their own do-not-call lists as required by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C.A. § 227.

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