20141103press release.pdf

Case No. ORE-T-14-01, Order No. 33158
Contact: Gene Fadness [phone], 890-2712
www.puc.idaho.gov

Increases for rural telephone company phased in over 4 years

BOISE (Nov. 3, 2014) – The Idaho Public Utilities Commission approved an application by
Oregon-Idaho Utilities to phase-in a telephone rate increase for the telecommunications
company’s approximate 81 customers in rural southwest Idaho.

Customers’ current monthly rate of $15.77 will increase to $20 over four years, with the first
increase, to $16 effective Dec. 1 of this year. The rate increases to $18 on June 1, 2016, and
then to $20 on June 1, 2017.

Oregon-Idaho Utilities has not increased its Idaho residential rate since 1990.

The increase is required by the Federal Communications Commission if Oregon-Idaho Utilities
wants to continue to receive federal high-cost support from the FCC’s Connect America Fund
(CAF). The FCC created the Connect America Fund to spur development of cellular broadband
in rural areas. The fund is an update of the federal Universal Service Fund created in 1988 to
make telephone service available at reasonable cost in rural areas.

In order to qualify to receive the federal support, the FCC established a minimum rate of $20.46
that local companies must charge their customers. The $20 rate reached on June 1, 2017,
combined with other state fees, will increase residential services to beyond the $20.46 “rate
floor” established by the FCC.

The federal support helps rural companies provide service in areas where greater distances and
fewer customers make providing service more costly than in urban areas. The South Mountain
Exchange served by Oregon-Idaho Utilities covers 2,126 square miles and represents some of
the most difficult to serve customer locations in southwest Idaho. About one-third of the
customers have no access to commercial power and rely on gas lamps, lanterns and/or low-
grade solar power for lighting. Some homes are heated by wood or oil-burning stoves.

All Idaho telephone customers, including cellular customers, pay into the Connect America
Fund so that rates in rural, high-cost can stay comparable to urban rates. The monthly
assessment for all Idaho telephone and cellular users is 16 cents per residential line, 25 cents
per commercial line and $.006 per intrastate long-distance billed minute.

Copies of the commission’s final order along with other documents related to the case are
available on the commission’s Website at www.puc.idaho.gov. Click on "Open Cases,” under
the “Telecom” heading and scroll down to Case No. ORE-T-14-01.

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