Metro Private Line SONET Service Level Agreement (SLA)

 

The Metro Private Line SONET Service Level Agreement (SLA) applies to Metro Private Line SONET Service circuits which are ordered on or after September 25, 1999, with a term commitment of at least one year, except that the Service Installation SLA applies to Type 1 and Type 4a OC 3, OC 12

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, OC48 and OC192 which are ordered on or after August 10, 2001, only. This SLA does not apply to any Metro Private Line SONET Service circuit subtending or installed as an appearance on an MPL Optical Wavelength base system which is installed in a linear or unprotected configuration. Customers will be eligible to receive special credit allowances for failure by the Company to satisfy two Performance Standards: "Service Availability" and "Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)".  If these special credit allowances are not applicable to a circuit, the Customer will receive credit outage allowances pursuant to standard credit outage allowance provisions.

 

1.         Definitions:      For purposes of this SLA, the following definitions apply:

 

·                     Mean Time to Repair (MTTR):  MTTR is the period of time commencing with the date and time the Customer first informs the Company of a circuit Service Outage (i.e. opens a "Trouble Ticket") and ending on the date and time that service on that circuit is restored.

 

·                     Service Availability:  Service Availability is the total number of minutes in a monthly billing period during which service on that circuit is available for use by the  Customer, divided by the total number of minutes in that monthly billing period.  For the purposes of this SLA, Service Availability will be calculated by taking into account the time between the initiation of a Trouble Ticket for a Service Outage and reductions in time for factors or conditions that are not the

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Company's service responsibility.

 

·                     Service Installation Period: The span of time commencing on the date the Company accepts a completed Customer order for installation and ending on the date the Company completes service installation and the service becomes available for

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Customer use.

 

·                     Service Outage:  An unscheduled period of time when service is unavailable for use by the Customer.  A Service Outage is defined as 60 or more seconds of service unavailability within a 15-minute period measured by the Company.  A Service Outage may occur as a result of the Company's failure to meet its performance obligations or for factors or conditions that are not the Company's service responsibility, including those specified in the "Exclusions" section below.

 

·                     Trouble Ticket:  The result of reporting by a Customer to the Company of a perceived Service Outage.

 

2.         Qualifications:

 

                                                To be eligible to receive an SLA credit for a Service Outage, a Customer must: (i) initiate a Trouble Ticket within four hours of first learning of an Outage; and, (ii) make a written request for SLA credit to the Company within five days of initiating the Trouble Ticket.  When making an SLA credit request, the Customer must provide the Company with the following information: (1) the Trouble Ticket number; (2) the date and time the Trouble Ticket was initiated; and (3) the circuit ID number for each circuit that experienced the Service Outage.

 

                                                To receive a SLA credit for Service Installation Period SLA, an eligible Customer must make a written request for a credit to the Company within five business days of the completed installation of the qualifying service. When making this credit request, the Customer must provide the Company with the following information: (1) the date the Service Installation Period commenced; (2) the date specified for installation in the Customer order; (3) the date installation was completed; (4) the circuit ID for each circuit that was not installed within the SLA; and, (5) the Customer's order number.

 

3.         Service Level Agreements:

 

            Mean Time to Repair (MTTR):  The SLA for a Type 1 and Type 4a Network Configurations service is 2 hours.  The SLA for a Type 2, Type 3, Type 4b and Type 4c Network Configurations service is 4 hours. 

 

            To determine whether the SLA has been satisfied, a monthly "MTTR circuit average" will be determined by dividing the cumulative length of service outages for a circuit by the total number of Trouble Tickets opened during a monthly billing period for the circuit.

 

            Service Availability:  The SLA for a Type 1 and Type 4a Network Configurations service is 100 percent. The SLA for a Type 2, Type 3, Type 4b oand Type 4c Network Configurations service is

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99.8 percent.

 

            Service Installation Agreement:  The Company guarantees installation of qualifying Type 1 and Type 4a service within a Service Installation Period which does not exceed the longer of (i) the period specified for installation in the Customer order or (ii) 30 days, excluding weekends and Company holidays.

 

            If, at any time during the Service Installation Period, the Company ascertains that it lacks the facilities necessary to install service and so notifies the Customer, the Company will be relieved of any obligation to issue any SLA credits to the Customer with regard to the affected service.

 

4.         Credits:  During any monthly billing period in

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which the Company fails to meet an SLA, other

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than a Service Installation Period SLA, for a circuit, the Customer will receive credit for that circuit, as follows, provided, however, that the Customer may not receive a special credit allowance for a circuit for more than 6 months in any 12-month period:

 

·                     For a one month failure, the Company will provide a credit equal to 25 percent of the monthly recurring circuit charges, after application of all discounts.

 

·                     For a failure of two consecutive months, the Company will provide a credit equal to 50 percent of the monthly recurring circuit charges, after application of all discounts, for the second month.

 

·                     For a failure of three consecutive months, either: (1) the Company will provide a credit equal to 100 percent of the monthly recurring circuit charges, after application of all discounts, for the third month and each consecutive month thereafter that the Customer remains subscribed to the circuit and the Company fails to satisfy the SLA; or (2) the Customer may terminate service for that circuit without incurring termination liability, except for charges incurred prior to service termination, provided that the Customer notifies the Company in writing of its intent to terminate the circuit no later than 30 days after the conclusion of the third month or any consecutive month

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thereafter. For a failure of three consecutive months or more, the Company, upon written notice to a Customer, may terminate its performance obligations under this SLA, which will result in the application to circuit performance of the standard credit outage allowance provisions.

 

                                                If the Company fails to satisfy the Service Installation Period SLA, the Company will provide a credit equal to: 50 percent of the monthly recurring charges for circuits installed one to ten business days after the SIG; and, 100 percent of the monthly recurring charges for circuits installed more than 10 business days after the SLA.

 

5.         Exclusions:  Service Availability and MTTR SLA calculations will not include time during which a Service Outage results from any one or more of the following:

 

·                     Force Majeure Events.

 

Calculations to determine a Service Installation Period SLA credit will not include time during which the SLA is not satisfied as the result of, any of the following circumstances or conditions:

 

·                     Force Majeure Events.