• General Questions
• What do I do when I have a claim?
• Small Business Insurance:
  Forming A Solid Business Insurance Strategy
• D & O Insurance - Why Private Companies Should Have Directors and Officers Insurance
• What triggers a Business Interruption Insurance policy?

• What are Return to Work Programs?
• Independent Contractor vs. Employee
• What should I consider before doing construction?
• What Solutions are there for the Telecommunication Industry?
• What should I consider before issuing layoffs?

  Solutions for the Telecommunication Industry 

Answers:

As technologies converge, new challenges are emerging that may put your company and profits at risk. Just as the electronics revolution defined the 20th century, today's revolution in technology and telecommunications will shape business in the 21st century - and radically alter the risk management challenges telecommunications companies face. To help your company keep pace in a constantly changing and highly competitive environment, you need an insurance provider who is as innovative as you are and as committed to protecting your business.

Chubb has been helping protect the telecommunications industry since its infancy. Not only do we understand the roots of your business, we also care about your company's future. Our approach to insuring companies in the telecommunications industry is twofold: to respond to the insurance issues you face today and to help you prepare for the unknowns of tomorrow.

Our property and liability insurance program for the telecommunications industry draws upon our legacy as the insurer of choice for both the electronics and broadcasting industries and upon in-depth research of the requirements and concerns of our telecommunications customers. By learning what is most important to you, we can anticipate your specific insurance needs - and respond with specialized products and services that demonstrate our true understanding of your business.

The fact is, the issues that make your company vulnerable today may be entirely different tomorrow. Far from being the "single entity" business of the past, today's telecommunications industry is a mosaic of rapidly changing and emerging enterprises, each with its own area of specialization, each with its own challenges from an insurance standpoint. To Chubb, the telecommunications universe includes operating companies involved in a wide variety of activities such as Internet services, software development and integration and data processing, as well as equipment manufacturing and infrastructure development.

In designing the optimum combination of insurance products for existing and potential customers, we took into consideration a broad spectrum of issues that telecommunications companies face:

• Competition spawned by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the new financial liabilities arising out of new services being offered;
• The financial impact of losing customers after a business has endured significant damage to property;
• Obstacles and opportunities created by the Internet and other network operations;
• New risks resulting from global expansion.

Our understanding of these issues and our experience insuring technology-intensive industries are reflected in our unique approach to insuring the telecommunications industry. What follows is a description of various business situations that telecommunications companies face, the financial ramifications of each and the solutions that Chubb provides.

Advances in telecommunications technology and the demand for services have led to new laws in the U.S. and Europe that limit telecommunications regulation and encourage competition.

Telecommunications companies are inventing new technologies and services that take them into uncharted legal waters. Companies once protected under tariff for providing phone or data services are now also Internet service providers, software developers, consultants on systems and network integration, providers of networking services and suppliers of outsourced data processing for others. These services are not protected under tariff and thus expose providers to liability not only for the cost of the service, but for consequential damages as well.

What's more, tariff protection is disappearing rapidly. New agreements between telecommunications service providers and their customers will attempt to limit liability for failure to provide services. The questions is, will these agreements hold up in court? And in a competitive environment, will you be able to recover the costs of claims against you by increasing your rates?

Errors & omissions insurance that protects you from claim damages arising out of your failure to perform or provide a wide variety of telecommunications services. Consider these examples:

• A telecommunications company is sued by a reseller who suffers a loss due to a failure at the telecom company's switch site. The switch failure was caused by failure to maintain the switch and its software properly.
• A telecommunications company that performs data processing and maintenance of call records for others is sued. A customer alleges that because your company was unable to process monthly billings, the customer's company lost subscribers and revenues.
• A telecommunications company is sued by a customer for consequential damages arising out of the company's inability to meet several agreed-upon requirements specified in the design of the customer's high-speed switched data network.

The Internet is a vital source of business to telecommunications companies. Many Internet service providers, web site designers, web hosts or Internet content providers and users of the Internet are justifiably concerned about their responsibility for security of the voice, data and video traffic on their networks. They are also concerned about lawsuits alleging theft, distortion, manipulation or loss of customer data by hackers and about copyright and trademark infringement suits.

Errors & omissions insurance that provides defense and indemnity for suits alleging damages because of the theft, distortion, manipulation or loss of customer data by a hacker.

• A telecommunications company is sued for consequential damages alleging breach of security when a hacker accessed the company's telephone system and sent a malicious computer code that diverted communications from its intended recipient, causing the recipient to lose business.
• A company is sued for the cost of research and reproduction costs when a hacker accessed a private network installed by the telecom company and stole exam questions designed to test candidates for a medical degree.
• A company is sued for consequential damages alleging breach of security when a hacker broke through a firewall of a network provided by the telecom company and stole and distributed proprietary information.

Intellectual property insurance provides defense and indemnity for suits alleging infringement of copyright, title, trademark, slogan, trade dress, service mark or service name (including defense for injunctive relief actions) by or on behalf of the insured.

• In an attempt to fix a software problem, a telecom company inadvertently breaches a software agreement by changing some code.
• A telecommunications company is sued for copyright infringement when it allows an interconnecting telecom company to use software without the appropriate licensing agreement.
• A company posts a web site and is sued for service mark infringement by a company in France.

Few companies can imagine a catastrophic loss that would put their entire enterprise out of business for a full year. Nonetheless, typical "business income/loss of profits" insurance premiums are based on full annual income or turnover. However, in many cases, it's more important that a company has insurance for "extra expenses" (often sold as a separate coverage) rather than for loss of income or profits, because extra expense insurance helps get a company back into business quickly. But how do you determine how much extra expense insurance you might need?

We offer you a new way to determine how much business income and extra expense coverage you need...

• You can select business income and extra expense insurance amounts based on the cost to cover a full recovery at any key points in your revenue stream. Together, these two amounts will most likely represent less than 25% of your company's annual income (vs. 50-100%), so you may well save premium dollars, in addition to securing insurance limits that make more sense for your operations.

You can "blanket" business income and extra expense amounts to establish your limit of liability.

• What's more, you have complete flexibility in how your business income and extra expense insurance limits are applied, which reduces the chance of being underinsured for one or the other.

You can even protect your company from lost income if you lose customers. Your ability to recover income and/or extra expenses doesn't stop when your damaged property has been repaired. When you choose Chubb's "Unlimited Extended Period of Restoration," you can continue to receive income or extra expense dollars until both business income from operations and customer levels are restored to the same levels they were before the loss, or until the limit of liability for business income and extra expense is exhausted.

Most telecommunications companies conduct business internationally. As a result, differing legal theories in different countries are particularly important, as is the need for adequate insurance and access to strong local representation and services.

Your insurance works worldwide.

• Chubb has an in-depth understanding of how business is conducted globally - and of the vulnerabilities that accompany doing business in unfamiliar places. Backed by a worldwide network of local underwriters, loss control consultants and claim staff in 115 offices, Chubb offers true global insurance protection.

Our specially trained loss prevention and claim specialists provide advice and counsel to customers before and after a loss. Our loss control staff includes consultants with advanced technology-specific professional designations. Their goal is to understand your business as well as they understand insurance. Particularly today, when it is not unusual for a telecommunications business to operate in all corners of the globe, it is comforting to know that Chubb claim and loss control professionals are represented in all our offices around the world.

Chubb consistently earns the highest possible ratings for financial stability as well as claims-paying ability by leading industry rating organizations such as A.M. Best, Moody's, and Standard & Poor's.

Overseeing Chubb's approach to insurance for the telecommunications industry is the staff of the Technology Insurance Group, a team of experienced insurance professionals dedicated solely to the needs of technology-focused enterprises around the globe. Built on the premise that dynamic industries require full-time attention in order to keep pace with rapidly changing needs, the Technology Insurance Group offers an unrivaled approach: "one-stop shopping" and an innovative portfolio of insurance products for technology-intensive businesses worldwide.

Chubb's program offers the following features:

REMEMBER: Always refer to your policy and review all papers carefully to be aware of any limitations or exclusions which may apply. Remember, ALL policies contain certain limitations and exclusions, a policy is nothing more than a contract between you and an insurance company. Consult your policy and ask your Agent, just to be certain that you are clear on issues which may effect you.