Credit Allowance for Interruption of Local Access Service

In the event of a local access channel outage, a credit will be given in accordance with the following:

· The outage is 30 minutes or greater, measured from the time when the Customer reports the circuit failure or outage to the Company (trouble ticket initiation) and ending when the Company closes the trouble ticket.

· No credits will be given in cases where the Customer either does not initiate a trouble ticket or does not release the circuit to the Company for testing.

· For each circuit meeting the above criteria, the outage credit will equal two times the monthly local access channel charge, prorated for the outage period.  The credit may not exceed 100 percent of the monthly local access channel charge.

Example:  For a local access channel costing $1000 per month, a credit for a 5 hour outage would be calculated as follows:

5 hours / 24 hours / 30 days = .0069

.0069 X $1000 = $6.90

Credit = $6.90 X 2 = $13.80

· Two or more interruptions of 30 minutes or more during any period, up to but not including three hours, shall be considered as one interruption.

Credits will not be given if the outage or service unavailability resulted in whole or in part from one or more of the following:

· Any act or omission on the part of the Customer, Customer contractors or vendors, or third party (including, but not limited to any local access provider); scheduled maintenance; labor strikes; natural disasters; or force majeure events beyond the reasonable control of the Company (e.g., acts of God, government regulation, natural emergency, etc.);

· Interruptions during periods when the Customer elects not to release the service for testing or repair and continues to use it on an impaired basis;

· Interruptions during any period during which the Company or its agents are not afforded access to the premises where access lines associated with the Customer's services are terminated.