gnrt01.7jhwh.doc

JOHN R. HAMMOND
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL
IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
PO BOX 83720
BOISE, IDAHO 83720-0074
[phone]
IDAHO BAR NO. 5470

Street Address for Express Mail:
472 W. WASHINGTON
BOISE, ID 83702-5983

Attorney for the Commission Staff

BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION

IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION
OF NEW ACCESS COMMUNICATIONS LLC.,
FOR A CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE AND NECESSITY TO PROVIDE RESOLD LOCAL EXCHANGE SERVICES IN IDAHO. )
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CASE NO. GNR-T-01-7

COMMENTS OF THE
COMMISSION STAFF
COMES NOW the Staff of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, by and through its Attorney of record, John R. Hammond, Deputy Attorney General, in response to Order No. 28767, the Notice of Application and Notice of Modified Procedure in Case No. GNR-T-01-7 issued on July 5, 2001, submits the following comments.
On March 30, 2001, New Access Communications LLC. filed an Application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to provide resold local exchange services throughout Idaho in Qwest’s and Verizon’s service territories. New Access states that it has no plans to build facilities and will market its services primarily to residential customers. The Company filed amendments to its Application on June 14, 2001.

STAFF ANALYSIS
Staff reviewed the Application submitted by New Access and found that it included all of the required items identified by the Commission in Order No. 26665. New Access is a Minnesota corporation, with telephone operations at the time of its Application in Montana, Washington, Oregon and Minnesota. It is a relatively new company, formed in May 2000.
The corporate officers of New Access include individuals with extensive experience managing and growing companies providing resold long distance, on both the national and international level. Staff believes this expertise is sufficient for the range and type of services the Company proposes to offer.
The Application included audited financial statements for the part of the year 2000 that the Company was in existence, and unaudited data for two months of 2001. Based upon the information in the Application, Staff maintains that the Company has failed to demonstrate it has the financial resources that may be necessary, even for the limited scope of the operations it proposes. Staff recommends that New Access be required to post a bond or other form of financial security that is of a sufficient size that would protect Idaho customers in the event of the cessation of Idaho operations by the Company. Staff recommends an initial bond or other financial security amount of no less than $40,000, based upon an estimated average exposure of $40 per customer (based upon the rates contained in the proposed price list), and a maximum of 1000 customers recruited in the first year. Staff recommends the Company be required to maintain the bond or other financial security at a level equivalent to no less than $40 per customer, and provide the Commission with quarterly reports identifying the number of customers. If the number of customers increases to a level that would bring the bond amount to less than $40 per customer, the Company would be required to provide the Commission with evidence that the bond or financial security amount had been increased to exceed the $40 per customer level.

SUMMARY
Staff recommends the Commission approve the Application of New Access for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, subject to New Access providing the

Commission with a bond or other form of financial security in accordance with the terms described above.

Respectfully submitted this day of July 2001.

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John R. Hammond
Deputy Attorney General

Technical Staff: Wayne Hart

WH:JH:i:umisc/comments/gnrt01.7jhwh

STAFF COMMENTS 3 JULY 25, 2001