ORDER NO. 97-072

ENTERED FEB 20 1997

This is an electronic copy.

BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION

OF OREGON

UM 773

DISPOSITION: PETITION FOR RECONSIDERATION DISMISSED

On November 1, 1996, the Public Utility the Commission of Oregon issued Order No. 96-284 in this docket. On December 31, 1996, AT&T Communications of the Pacific Northwest, Inc. and MCI Telecommunications Corporation (the companies are called petitioners herein) filed a joint petition for reconsideration of that order. The Staff of the Public Utility Commission filed no response. No other party filed a response.

The Petition

The petition seeks clarification and/or reconsideration of Paragraph 3 of the Order portion of Order 96-284:

Cost and rate issues relating to the 1996 Telecommunications Act and FCC Rules adopted pursuant to the Act shall be addressed in UT 125.

Petitioners claim that this provision is ambiguous in that it is not clear if the intent is to consider all cost and rate issues related to the Telecommunications Act (the Act) in UT 125, including retail rates and rates for interconnection and network elements, or only rate issues related to retail services. If the Commission’s intent is to consider only retail rates, petitioners ask that the order be clarified to explicitly state that. If the intent is also to consider cost and rate issues for interconnection and network elements, petitioners assert that the order should be reconsidered.

The basis for Petitioners’ argument is Section 252 (d) (1) (A) (ii) of the Act, which, as petitioners note, requires the Commission to set prices for interconnection and network elements based on cost, but "without reference to a rate-of-return or other rate-based proceeding." Thus, petitioners argue, if the Commission intends the provision in question to mean that cost and rate issues for interconnection and network elements be considered in UT 125, it should reconsider that intent and limit the scope of UT 125 only to USWC’s retail rates.

Opinion

When we issued Order No. 96-284, we anticipated that we would reset rates for unbundled elements in UT 125. As we state in Order No. 97-071 (order on reconsideration in UM 351), issued simultaneously with this order, we now contemplate that revised costs for unbundled elements based on the cost methods adopted in Order No. 96-284 will be developed in March 1997. Once these costs have been reviewed and approved, we will consider whether new unbundled element prices are warranted. In the event the Commission approves new prices for unbundled elements, they will supersede the prices established in Order No. 96-283, Appendix C. Such an order approving new unbundled element prices would likely be issued before May 1, 1997, when USWC is scheduled to file its proposed bundled service rates in the rate design phase of UT 125. This change in procedure makes the petition for reconsideration moot.

Order

IT IS ORDERED that the petition for reconsideration filed by AT&T Communications of the Pacific Northwest, Inc. and MCI Telecommunications Corporation is dismissed.

Made, entered, and effective ________________________. 

A party may appeal this order to a court pursuant to ORS 756.580.