Avoiding Plant Operating Errors AT&T NP&E April 10, 2012 © 2012 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property.

AT&T Proprietary (Internal Use Only). Not for use or disclosure outside the AT&T companies except under written agreement. 2 POE Avoidance Overall trend for POEs is declining. However, we have had numerous vendor caused POEs in 2011, which remains a concern with AT&T Senior Executives We expect our vendor partners to prevent POEs and achieve Zero POEs for the year; protect AT&T’s network POEs affect our customers and may affect your bottom line POEs can be prevented using effective controls like documents and process review before installation, detailed process compliance, second set of eyes etc. In addition, we have made available a lessons learned document to help prevent POEs. We hold our vendor partners accountable to use these lessons and prevent future POEs We need our vendor partners to maintain sharp focus on POE elimination

WHY it’s more important than ever to avoid Plant Operating Errors: 1.Consumers have become more reliant on our broadband and mobility network. 2.The environment is more competitive than ever before. 3.Our network is handling more data on an hourly basis than ever, making each outage more impactful. 4.Businesses choose AT&T because of our reliable network. Each outage diminishes our value in the eyes of these businesses. 5.Today’s environment has us touching more parts of the network simultaneously than ever before. Heightened awareness is critical. © 2012 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property. AT&T Proprietary (Internal Use Only). Not for use or disclosure outside the AT&T companies except under written agreement. 3

Next Steps: © 2012 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property. AT&T Proprietary (Internal Use Only). Not for use or disclosure outside the AT&T companies except under written agreement. 4 1.Cover this presentation with all employees and subcontractor employees that are responsible for AT&T’s Installation/Engineering/Quality work (CO's, POPs/Nodes, MTSOs, Mobility Data Centers ) 2.TALK about successes and failures in future team meetings. EVERY meeting should have some topic around this subject. 3.Ensure all employees in your organization complete the 2 hours web based ASK YOURSELF course (# ) by June 1 4.Post the attached “POE Avoidance” placard as appropriate in the work environment

© 2012 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property. AT&T Proprietary (Internal Use Only). Not for use or disclosure outside the AT&T companies except under written agreement. 5 Plant Operating Error Avoidance Resources

Ask Yourself Principles 1.Do I have the proper ID and appropriate building access permissions for the environment I am about to enter? 2.Do I know why I’m doing this work? 3.Have I identified and notified everybody - customers and internal groups - who will be directly affected by this work? 4.Can I prevent or control service interruption? 5.Is this the right time to do this work? 6.Am I trained and qualified to do this work? 7.Are the work orders, MOPs, and supporting documentation current and error-free? 8.Do I have everything I need to quickly and safely restore service if something goes wrong? 9.Have I walked through the procedure? 10.Have I made sure the procedure includes proper closure including obtaining clearance and release for the appropriate work center? © 2012 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property. 6

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MOP Best Practices Summary Minimizing Impacts and POE for Tech Insertion and Change © 2012 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property. AT&T Proprietary (Internal Use Only). Not for use or disclosure outside the AT&T companies except under written agreement. 8  Development of Methods of Procedure (MOP) for technology insertion and change  Driven from Deployment Guidelines and Gold Standards (Engineering rules and parameters).  Uses a standard template, including prerequisites, pre-checks, execution, post-checks, validation, and service assurance.  MOP Certification  Vetting of MOPs in a Production Support Lab (PSL) or approved peer review of paper documentation where no PSL exists, prior to field use to minimize MOP defects  MOP Risk Assessment (RA) and review  Quantifies MOP impact risk via numerical scoring.  Enforces MOP review and approval to appropriate teams and management levels.  Enforces an End-to-End view on network and service impacts, and inter-element dependencies.  Execution of the MOP by the appropriate Work Center (e.g. NRC, PCO, etc.)  Validation of successful technology insertion or change and post-change service assurance

Procedural Error Reduction Best Practices © 2012 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property. AT&T Proprietary (Internal Use Only). Not for use or disclosure outside the AT&T companies except under written agreement. 9 Fully implement the “Ask Yourself” program, including formal training. Use MOP Development, Certification, Risk Assessment, Approval, and Review best practice; formal MOP Best Practices Training (# ). Take an End-to-End view on procedure impacts, including impacts on services, and understand inter-element dependencies. Complete Service Validation and Assurance Testing. Utilize 3CP testing processes during planned activity. Communications, Command, and Control Process Coordinated testing with the NRCs (e.g., MNRC) Fully implement training and certification as appropriate, including subcontractor employees training. Ensure Accountability: Connect Procedural Errors to yearly Goal commitments and track improvement status with action plans. Implement appropriate disciplinary/corrective action plans. Review monthly Procedural Errors (OTD misses, Defects, Outages etc.) on a regular basis.