20001010.min.doc

MINUTES OF DECISION MEETING
October 10, 2000 - 1:30 pm

In attendance were Commissioners Dennis Hansen, Marsha H. Smith, and Paul Kjellander.

Commissioner Hansen called the meeting to order.

First item on the agenda was APPROVAL OF MINUTES from the previous meeting of September 29, 2000. Commissioner Hansen made a motion to approve the minutes. A vote was taken on the motion. Motion carried.

Next to be considered were the matters on the CONSENT AGENDA, items 2 through 5. Commissioner Hansen asked if the Commissioners had questions or if they wanted to discuss any of the items on the Consent Agenda.

Commissioner Smith stated she had a question on Item 4. She wanted to clarify that EAS would take effect on Sunday, October 15th. She commented that there should be some kind of publicity about the implementation of EAS. Commissioner Smith then moved to approve the Consent Agenda items. Vote was taken and motion carried.

MATTERS IN PROGRESS

Don Howell's September 26, 2000 Decision Memorandum and October 6, 2000 Supplemental Decision Memorandum re: Rate Center Consolidation for Qwest. Case No. USW-T-99-21.

Don Howell reviewed the matter and explained rate center consolidation and the issues involved. After reviewing the information in his Decision Memos, he asked the Commissioners if they thought it is appropriate to implement rate center consolidation.

Commissioner Smith asked if the issue is time sensitive in any way. Mr. Howell replied that it is not time sensitive. Commissioner Smith said she has been an enthusiastic advocate of rate center consolidation thinking it would delay the time when we would have to go to ten-digit dialing and have new area codes in our state. She stated she would hate to rush into rate center consolidation, however, when it could severely impact rural customers who are already paying through the nose for their long distance because they don't have EAS to nearby communities. She said if there is no downside to a short delay, she would like more specific information on exactly what long distance charges are going to change and by how much.

Commissioner Kjellander commented that he thought he had heard there might be some type of proposal regarding implementation of a new area code submitted to the Commission this calendar year. He questioned if that is correct. Mr. Howell confirmed that is correct. He said Mr. Cooley has brought it to his attention that the industry is going to file a proposal with the Commission, recommending a method of implementing a new area code. Commissioner Smith stated the date of filing the proposal would be on or about November 9th. Commissioner Kjellander stated that if we are going to see a proposal come up within a month, waiting until that time would give the Commission another opportunity to really look at the issues raised by Commissioner Smith. He said he would support delaying action until we have had more time to look at the issues.

Commissioner Hansen asked how many states have more than just one area code. Doug Cooley responded that a rough guess would be that less than one third of the states have just one area code. Many other states are implementing the planning process, however, for implementing new area codes. Commissioner Hansen asked if it is unusual for a state to have two or more area codes, and Mr. Cooley replied that it is not unusual. Commissioner Hansen asked Mr. Howell if consolidation could result in increases in the expense of calls in certain areas. Mr. Howell replied that consolidation could result in increases in rates for long distance charges in some instances. Commissioner Hansen then asked if consolidated rate centers would make it more expensive and difficult for the phone companies to implement EAS. Mr. Howell responded that EAS would be more difficult to implement and a very expensive and cumbersome process in consolidated centers. Mr. Cooley confirmed that when considering EAS for consolidated rate centers, they would need to examine the whole rate center and not just parts of it when considering EAS to a particular community. Commissioner Hansen questioned if rate center consolidation would bring ten-digit dialing rather than staying with the system we have. Mr. Howell replied that rate center consolidation will not bring about ten-digit dialing any faster. He explained ten-digit dialing is really an issue of how the Commission will implement the new area code when we get to that point.

Commissioner Smith asked Doug Cooley if the information we need is reasonably available. Mr. Cooley said that other states that have implemented rate center consolidation have done studies to see how many customers will be affected (by higher long distance rates). He said it is his understanding that 90% or more of customers in this day and age are on a calling plan, and he felt few customers would be affected, although he didn't know of a quick way to quantify that. Commissioner Smith asked Mr. Cooley if he would recommend rate center consolidation. He said he felt comfortable implementing it now, although waiting another month would not be a problem, either. Commissioner Smith asked if Qwest had given any response to the staff's suggestion of creating nine rate centers instead of eight. Mr. Cooley said that in informal conversations, Qwest was fine with the PUC's suggestion.

Commissioner Hansen commented that the Magic Valley could be affected by potential EAS cases, where Southeastern Idaho is already one large group and the Treasure Valley area is also pretty well connected. He stated that any EAS issues would probably be in the Magic Valley area. Mr. Cooley concurred.

Commissioner Kjellander noted that in Mr. Howell's supplemental memo he mentioned there was some value to implementing rate center consolidation in order to obtain future permission from the FCC to use 1,000-block number pooling and reclaim unused NXX codes. He asked if the PUC has any immediate plans to go to the FCC and request anything like that or if that is something that is still out in the distant future. Mr. Howell replied that it depends on one's view of the future. He said that when the Commission initiated this case we thought the "exhaust" was going to be in 2006, but now it looks like it is going to be in 2003. He said that what usually happens when a state gets within 12 to 18 months of an "exhaust" date it is allowed to implement 1,000-block pooling as an additional step to get a little more distance before a new area code is actually implemented. He said primarily there are two ways to implement new area codes: overlays or carving out distinct areas of the state. Mr. Howell said it is staff's belief that if the Commission wanted to make a request to the FCC ahead of time to go to 1,000-block pooling or to initiate the reclamation of unused NXX codes, the PUC would be in a better position to do so if we could demonstrate we had tried to implement other things that are under FCC authority, such as the assignment of NXX codes. He said he didn't think it was a really critical step, however.

Commissioner Hansen noted there had been a good discussion and asked what the pleasure of the Commission was. Commissioner Smith suggested she would really like to look at exchange maps of the Magic Valley area that would tell her which exchanges have and don't have EAS and then find out what the staff knows about calling patterns in those areas to make sure we understand the consequences. She moved that we gather more information and bring the issue back at a future Decision Meeting. A vote was taken and the motion carried unanimously.

Don Howell's October 5, 2000 Decision Memorandum re: Staff Recommended Procedures to Review/Approve Interconnection Agreements and Amendments to Interconnection Agreements. Case Nos. USW-T-97-8; GTE-T-00-5; USW-T-00-5 (Stipulation); USW-T-99-28; and USW-T-00-5 (Third Amendment).

Don Howell explained the new procedures recommended by the staff to review and approve interconnection agreements and amendments to interconnection agreements in order to streamline the process. He stated the proposal is to treat interconnection agreements much like the Commission treats tariff advices, with an administerial ex parte review by the Commission staff. He explained that staff will group the interconnection agreements, using a multi-captioned case heading to make the process more efficient.

Commissioner Kjellander commented that anytime he sees something that appears to streamline procedures and doesn't jeopardize anybody's access to our process it makes sense to him. He moved for approval of staff's recommendations and approval of the amendments to the five interconnection agreements under consideration. The motion carried unanimously.

RULEMAKING
Don Howell's October 2, 2000 Decision memorandum regarding Proposed Amendments to the Railroad Safety/Sanitation Rules, Case No. 31-7103-0001.

Don Howell reviewed the rulemaking, which was initiated in July. Comments were to be received by September 27th. No comments were submitted. He asked if the Commission wanted to make any final corrections or changes to the Rules.

Commissioner Hansen asked if there were questions on the proposed rules. There were none, so he moved that the Commission adopt the proposed rules as pending rules. Vote was taken and the motion carried. The meeting was then adjourned.

Dated at Boise, Idaho this 24th day of October, 2000.

Jean D. Jewell
Commission Secretary
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