20220609Reconsideration_Order_No_35426.pdf

ORDER NO. 35426 1

Office of the Secretary
Service Date
June 9, 2022

BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION

IN THE MATTER OF QWEST
CORPORATION’S PETITION FOR
ELIMINATION OF PERFORMANCE
ASSURANCE PLAN AND PERFORMANCE
INDICATOR DEFINITIONS
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CASE NO. QWE-T-21-13

ORDER NO. 35426

On December 1, 2021, Qwest Corporation d/b/a Century Link QC (“Company”) petitioned
the Commission for an order eliminating the Performance Indicator Definitions (“PIDs”) and the
Performance Assurance Plan (“PAP”) portions of its interconnection agreements (“ICAs”) with
each Idaho competitive local exchange carrier (“CLEC”).
On February 4, 2022, the Commission issued a Notice of Petition and Notice of Modified
Procedure. Order No. 35310.
Commission Staff (“Staff”) filed comments on February 25, 2022. The Company did not
respond.
On April 21, 2022, the Commission approved the Company’s petition and ordered it to file,
by July 1, 2022, all ICAs that had been amended by removing the PIDs and PAPs. Order No.
35379 at 3.
On May 12, 2022, the Company filed a petition entitled, “Compliance with Order No.
35379 or, in the Alternative, Request for Clarification or Reconsideration” (“Petition”) requesting
the Commission accept its Petition as the Company’s compliance with Order No. 35379 or, in the
alternative, clarify or reconsider Order No. 35379.
With this Order, we clarify Order No. 35379, and find the Company’s Petition complies
with our directive.
BACKGROUND
As previously stated in Order No. 35379:
Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Company, as an incumbent local
exchange carrier (“ILEC”), was required to enter ICAs with other
telecommunications service providers who requested access to the Company’s
network, facilities, or services. 47 U.S.C. §§ 251-252. The processes and procedures
outlined by 47 U.S.C. § 271 (“section 271 requirements”) also allowed the Company
to enter, for the first time, in-region inter LATA services markets.

ORDER NO. 35426 2
However, before the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) allowed the
Company to enter such markets, the Company was required under the section 271
requirements to submit its systems and processes to third-party testing and develop
performance measurements by implementing PIDs and putting in place a PAP.

The Company represented that, by 2020, many of the elements of the PIDs and PAP
process became unnecessary due to the proliferation of cable and wireless services
and, furthermore, were eliminated by the FCC forbearance orders and the
Commission.

Order No. 35379 at 1. Therefore, based on the above facts, the Company requested
Commission authorization to eliminate the PAP and PIDs from the ICAs.
The Commission granted the Company’s request to remove the PIDs and PAP from all its
ICAs with CLECs. Order No. 35379 at 2. The Commission further directed and ordered the
Company “to file for Commission review by July 1, 2022, all ICAs that have the PIDs and PAPs
removed.” Id. 2 and 3.
PETITION FOR RECONSIDERATION OR CLARIFICATION
In its Petition, the Company responded that it had provided information it believed
complied with the directive in Order No. 35379. Petition at 1. The Company explained that it had
identified 90 ICAs that included terms for PIDs and PAP. The Company filed an Attachment to its
Petition which listed every individual CLEC it had a filed ICA with that included the PIDs and the
PAP as well as the contract number of the ICA and type of communication line corresponding to
each of the 90 CLECs. The Company believed this information indicated to the Commission every
ICA that had been amended through removal of the PIDs and the PAP.
The Company further explained why filing amended ICAs would be unnecessary,
impractical, and unduly expensive.
The Company pointed out that Exhibit K of every ICA with a CLEC contained the
following provision: “15.2.1 Subsequent changes to the PAP approved by the Commission will be
incorporated into individual interconnection agreements that contain the PAP as soon as the
effective date of the Commission order, and without further Amendment to those Agreements.”
Id. (emphasis in the original.) The Company also explained that other exhibits to ICAs, in addition
to Exhibit K, could be amended generically by the Commission without additional filings or
written amendments.
In addition to being unnecessary to amend every ICA, the Company explained that it would
be “virtually impossible, and highly impractical to amend every single [ICA] that contain[ed] a

ORDER NO. 35426 3
PAP” due to the fact that many CLECs never respond to the Company for a variety of reasons. Id.
at 3. Last, the Company explained that there were “no internal processes or systems support that
would allow it to create different PID/PAP criteria for individual CLECs.” Id. at 4.
Based on the above reasons, the Company suggested that its Attachment to its Petition
listing all the CLECs in Idaho with whom it had an ICA, and the number of each ICA satisfied the
Commission’s directive in Order No. 35379.
COMMISSION FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The Commission has jurisdiction over this matter under Idaho Code § 62-615 (the
Commission’s authority to implement the Telecommunications Act of 1996) and Idaho Code §
62-605(5)(b) (the Commission’s continuing, noneconomic authority over Title 62 telephone
corporations); see also 47 U.S.C. 252(e)(1).
The Commission has the authority to grant or deny reconsideration under Idaho Code §
61-626(2). Reconsideration allows any interested person to bring to the Commission’s attention
any question previously determined, and thereby affords the Commission an opportunity to rectify
any mistake or omission. Washington Water Power Co., v. Kootenai Environmental Alliance, 99
Idaho 875, 879, 591 P.2d 122, 126 (1979). The Commission’s Rules of Procedure require a petition
for reconsideration to “set forth specifically the ground or grounds why the petitioner contends
that the order or any issue decided in the order is unreasonable, unlawful, erroneous or not in
conformity with the law.” Commission Rule 331.01, IDAPA 31.01.01.331.01.
Any person may petition the Commission to clarify an order under Commission Rule 325,
IDAPA 31.01.01.325. A petition for clarification may be combined with a petition for
reconsideration. Id.
We note Exhibit K’s language that “changes to the PAP approved by the Commission will
be incorporated into individual interconnection agreements without further Amendment to those
Agreements.” When we issued Order No. 35379, the PIDs and PAP portions in every ICA on file
with the Commission were effectively removed as a result of the operation of Exhibit K. In other
words, Order No. 35379 “amended” every relevant ICA on file with the Commission. Accordingly,
by filing a list of all the CLECs with ICAs on file with the Commission that previously had the
PIDs and the PAP, we clarify that the Company complied with our directive in Order No. 35379.
While we acknowledge that the Company complied with our directive in this case, we note
the Company’s statement that it has not filed amendments relating to the FCC forbearance petition

ORDER NO. 35426 4
that is the subject of Case No. QWE-T-20-02. Petition at 3.1 However, we further acknowledge
the Company’s assurance in the Petition in this case that it “still intends to file the amendments”
which, the Company claims, are due under the FCC requirements by August 1, 2022. Id. at 3, fn.
4. We direct the Company, consistent with Order No. 34766, to file the amendments relating to
the FCC forbearance petition by August 1, 2022.
O R D E R
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Company’s Petition is granted: the Company, with the
filing of its Petition, complied with our directive in Order No. 35379.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED the Company file with the Commission the amendments it
was ordered to file in Order No. 34766 by August 1, 2022.
THIS IS A FINAL ORDER ON RECONSIDERATION. Any party aggrieved by this Order
or any final order in this case may appeal to the Supreme Court of Idaho pursuant to the Public
Utilities Law and the Idaho Appellate Rules. See Idaho Code § 61-627.
DONE by Order of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission at Boise, Idaho this 9th day of
June 2022.

ERIC ANDERSON, PRESIDENT

JOHN CHATBURN, COMMISSIONER

JOHN R. HAMMOND JR., COMMISSIONE
ATTEST:

Jan Noriyuki
Commission Secretary

I:\Legal\TELECOM\QWE-T-21-13\Orders\QWET2113_reconsideration_rn.docx

1 In Order No. 34766 the Commission ordered the Company to file “for Commission review all ICAs that the Company
has amended with CLECs due to the 2019 Forbearance Orders.” See Order No. 34766.