28390.doc

BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION

IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION OF RESIDENTS IN THE AREA OF EMMETT, IDAHO FOR TOLL-FREE CALLING BETWEEN EMMETT, IDAHO AND PARMA, IDAHO. )
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CASE NO. GNR-T-00-16

ORDER NO. 28390

On March 14, 2000, the Commission received a petition containing 22 signatures from customers of U S WEST Communications’ Emmett exchange requesting extended area service (EAS) from the Emmett exchange to the Parma exchange served by Citizens Communications. The petition does not identify any reason to justify the request, other than that Citizens’ Parma customers can select a local calling plan that provides toll-free calling to Emmett. The petition included a column to indicate willingness to pay, asking the petitioners if they were willing to pay “more than $10.00 per month for EAS.” All petitioners answered “no” in this column.
In Case No. CTC-T-98-3, Order No. 27789, the Commission approved an optional calling plan that provides customers in the Citizens’ exchanges of Parma, Wilder, Homedale and Marsing with an optional calling plan that includes toll free calling to the U S WEST exchanges of Boise, Caldwell, Eagle, Emmett, Idaho City, Kuna, Melba, Meridian, Middleton, Nampa, New Plymouth, Payette, Star and Weiser. However, the Commission denied the expansion of U S WEST’s EAS region to include these Citizens exchanges. (Order 27789, pages 21 and 22.) The Commission did allow the existing EAS routes between the Citizens exchanges and the U S WEST exchanges of Caldwell and Nampa to continue. (Clarified in Order 27826, page 6.)
In Case No. GNR-T-93-13, Order No. 26311, the Commission identified a number of primary and secondary factors to be used when evaluating EAS calling areas. To determine whether a community of interest exists to support EAS, the primary factors in addition to the calling data are as follows:

1. Geographic proximity (distance between exchanges);

2. The presence of geographic or other physical barriers (mountains, rivers, valleys) between exchanges;

3. County seat relationship (are both exchanges in the same county);

4. The relationship to school districts (do both exchanges share the same school district);

5. The proximity to medical facilities and services;

6. The willingness of customers to pay increased rates.

The Emmett exchange does not share a border with the Parma exchange, as a portion of the Caldwell or New Plymouth exchange separates the two exchanges. Emmett lies within the Payette River drainage and Parma is within the Boise River drainage. While the summit between the two drainages in this area is not formidable, no major highways provide a direct link between these communities. When measured in air miles, the City of Emmett is approximately 25 miles from the City of Parma. Unless secondary roads are used, the most direct route between these communities is through either New Plymouth or Star, a distance closer to 40 miles. Boise, Nampa and Caldwell provide more general business, governmental and medical services than Parma, and all are located closer (via major highways) to Emmett than Parma.
1998 calling data on file with the Commission by U S WEST indicates the calling volume over the requested route during the sampled period averaged less than 1/10th of a call per month per line. This is nearly 100 times less than the calling volume found in recent community to community EAS cases approved by this Commission.
The calling data clearly indicates that a majority of the customers in the Emmett exchange do not call Parma on a frequent basis. In addition, the petitioners failed to identify any reasons for granting the EAS, and overwhelmingly indicated a lack of willingness to pay for the cost of the requested EAS. Therefore, the Commission declines the invitation to conduct an EAS investigation for the Emmett exchange at this time.
O R D E R
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Commission will not investigate additional EAS for the Emmett exchange at this time, and this case is closed.
THIS IS A FINAL ORDER. Any person interested in this Order may petition for reconsideration within twenty-one (21) days of the service date of this Order. Within seven (7) days after any person has petitioned for reconsideration, any other person may cross-petition for reconsideration. See Idaho Code § 61-626.

DONE by Order of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission at Boise, Idaho, this
day of June 2000.

DENNIS S. HANSEN, PRESIDENT

MARSHA H. SMITH, COMMISSIONER

PAUL KJELLANDER, COMMISSIONER

ATTEST:

Myrna J. Walters
Commission Secretary

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ORDER NO. 28390 - 1 -

Office of the Secretary
Service Date
June 2, 2000