20060922Decision memo.pdf

DECISION MEMORANDUM
TO:CO MMISSI 0 NER KJELLAND ER
COMMISSIONER SMITH
CO MMISSI 0 NER HANSEN
COMMISSION SECRETARY
COMMISSION STAFF
LEGAL
FROM:WELDON STUTZMAN
DATE:SEPTEMBER 22, 2006
SUBJECT:CASE NO. RUR-06-
STAFF REPORT FOLLOWING INVESTIGATION OF RURAL
TELEPHONE COMPANY'S COMPLIANCE WITH COMMISSION
RULES
On January 26, 2006, the Commission issued Order No. 29964 openIng an
investigation into issues raised by a complaint filed by a customer of Rural Telephone Company.
The complaint was prompted by weather related service outages during November and
December 2005, and the Company s response to customers ' complaints. The Commission in
Order No. 29964 directed the Company to respond to six questions.
On August 25, 2006, the Commission Staff completed its written report and filed it
with the Commission. In addition, Staff provided a copy of the report to the telephone company
and the complaining customer, and notified the parties that the Staff would ask the Commission
to approve the report and its recommendations at a decision meeting on September 25 , 2006.
Staff also invited the parties to file written responses regarding the report no later than
September 20, 2006, so that the Commission could also consider those comments at the decision
meeting.
The six questions identified by the Commission for a response, as well as a brief
summary of the Staffs finding, are as follows:
1. Pursuant to the Commission s Telephone Customer Relations Rules 501-
503, are customers entitled to a refund of their monthly service charges
for December 2005?
DECISION MEMORANDUM
Answer:The service outages that occurred in December 2005 and January
2006 were not local telephone service outages, but were long-
distance and 911 service outages. The Commission s rule only
requires a refund of a monthly service charge when local service
is out for a specified period of time. The Company nonetheless
provided the customers with a service credit for January 2006.
2. Did the Company adequately respond to the reports of service outage by
customers?
Answer:The Company maintains it did all that it could to restore service
but was impeded by high levels of snow and weather conditions.
3. What steps, if any, should the Company take to mitigate the possibility of
outages caused by winter snowfalls?
Answer:The Company has purchased two backup wind turbines to
provide electric power for its microwave repeaters, and also re-
adjusted the position of solar panels to maximize the sun s rays
on the solar battery chargers. The Company is also looking into
the use of heat tape on the solar panels to help alleviate the
accumulation of snow and ice.
4. Does the Company experience network congestion, and if so, what
remedies are available?
Answer:When long-distance or 911 service is not available, a customer
attempting one of those calls will receive an "all circuits busy
message. Rural maintains that it has never had a network
congestion problem. Staff recommends that a different message
to customers would be more appropriate.
5. Are the Company s directories in compliance with the Commission
Rules?
Answer:Staff determined the Company directories were not in
compliance with the Commission s rules in only one way. The
Commission s Telephone Customer Relations Rule 601 requires a
directory to contain the Commission s address and a statement
that if a dispute cannot be resolved with the telephone company, a
complaint may be filed with the Commission. The Company has
worked with Staff to correct this omission.
6. How does the Company ensure it properly identifies customers as
residential or business in compliance with the terms of its tariff?
DECISION MEMORANDUM
Answer:The Company s tariff allows it to classify a customer as a
business customer if the line is used at all for a business purpose
with some limited exceptions. The steps taken by the Company
to determine whether a residential line should be reclassified as a
business line appear to be consistent with the Company s tariff.
However, the tariff may not be consistent with the Commission
rules, which allow some leeway in the use of the particular line.
Under the Commission s rules, a residential line must be used
primarily but not necessarily exclusively for residential purposes.
The Staff Report provides a review and analysis of each of these issues, and also
makes specific recommendations to mitigate similar problems or confusion in the future. Those
specific recommendations are at pages 14 and 15 of the Staff Report.
Staff recommends that the Commission approve the report as filed by the Staff and
adopt the specific recommendations as set forth on pages 14 and 15 of the Staff Report.
- \)-~-_.
::::;z
Weldon B. Stutzman
bls/M:RUR-O6-
DECISION MEMORANDUM