PETITION.docx

(text box: 1)BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITIONS FROM RESIDENTS IN BEAR LAKE COUNTY REQUESTING INCLUSION IN THE SOUTHEASTERN IDAHO EXTENDED CALLING AREA OF U S WEST COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
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CASE NO. GNR-T-97-7
NOTICE OF PETITION
On April 18, 1997, the Commission received a petition signed by more than 250 customers of the local telephone exchange in Bear Lake County.  The communities of Paris, Bloomington, St. Charles and Fish Haven are situated in the telephone exchange.  The petition requests that the Bear Lake County exchange be included in the southeast Idaho extended area service (EAS)  region that is provided to customers of U S WEST Communications.  Toll free calling between exchanges is usually provided through a service arrangement known as EAS.(footnote: 1)  The petitioners receive local telephone service from Lakeside Communications, Inc.  Upon its own motion, the Commission initiates this proceeding to examine the reasonableness of establishing EAS routes between these communities and the communities served by U S WEST Communications in its southeast Idaho EAS region, the largest of which are Pocatello and Idaho Falls.
YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that the petitioners assert that EAS calling is appropriate between the communities in Bear Lake County and the communities served by the U S WEST southeast Idaho EAS region.  The petitions assert that Bear Lake Valley is a single community, with an elementary school in Paris and middle and high schools in Montpelier in the same school district.  Montpelier is in Bear Lake County, and the Bear Lake County seat is in Paris.  Petitioners assert that this EAS request would make it easier to secure essential services, to conduct business, to communicate with schools and county offices, to communicate with relatives and friends and to secure business and farming services.
YOU ARE FURTHER NOTIFIED that this proceeding has been initiated on the Commission’s own motion to consider the reasonableness of establishing EAS routes between the communities of Bear Lake County and the communities of the U S WEST southeast Idaho EAS region.  The Commission will schedule hearings to be conducted later this year.
YOU ARE FURTHER NOTIFIED that U S WEST Communications, Inc. and Lakeside Communications, Inc. are designated as parties to this case.
DATED at Boise, Idaho this day of August 1997.

Myrna J. Walters
Commission Secretary
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FOOTNOTES
1:
 Toll free EAS is something of a misnomer because the costs associated with converting a former long distant toll route to a toll free EAS route are usually recovered from the effected customers by increasing their rates for local service.
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Service Date
August 7, 1997