00001 1 BEFORE THE WASHINGTON UTILITIES AND TRANSPORTATION 2 COMMISSION 3 In the Matter of the Pricing ) Proceeding for Interconnection, )DOCKET NO. UT-960369 4 Unbundled Elements, Transport and ) Termination, and Resale ) 5 -----------------------------------) ) 6 In the Matter of the Pricing ) Proceeding for Interconnection, )DOCKET NO. UT-960370 7 Unbundled Elements, Transport and ) Termination, and Resale for ) 8 U S WEST COMMUNICATIONS, INC. ) -----------------------------------) 9 ) In the Matter of the Pricing ) 10 Proceeding for Interconnection, )DOCKET NO. UT-960371 Unbundled Elements, Transport and ) 11 Termination, and Resale for ) VOLUME 1 GTE NORTHWEST INCORPORATED ) Pages 1- 13 12 -----------------------------------) 13 14 A pre-hearing conference in the above matter 15 was held at 9:30 a.m. on December 9, 1996, at 1300 16 South Evergreen Park Drive Southwest, Olympia, 17 Washington before Administrative Law Judge TERRENCE 18 STAPLETON. 19 20 The parties were present as follows: 21 GTE NORTHWEST INCORPORATED by RICHARD E. POTTER, Associate General Counsel, 1800 41st Street, 22 (5LE) Everett, Washington 98201. 23 SPRINT COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY, L.P., by CAROL MATCHETT, Attorney at Law, 1850 Gateway Drive, 24 Seventh Floor, San Mateo, California 94404-2467. 25 Cheryl Macdonald, Court Reporter 00002 1 APPEARANCES (Cont'd.) 2 U S WEST COMMUNICATIONS, INC., by EDWARD T. SHAW, Corporate Counsel, 1600 Bell Plaza, Room 3206, 3 Seattle, Washington 98181. 4 AT&T COMMUNICATIONS, by DANIEL WAGGONER, Attorney at Law, 2600 Century Square, 1501 Fourth 5 Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98101 and SUSAN D. PROCTOR, Attorney at Law, 1875 Lawrence Street, Suite 6 1575, Denver, Colorado 80202. 7 MCI COMMUNICATIONS, MCI METRO, TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESELLERS ASSOCIATION, and 8 WORLDCOM, INC., by CLYDE H. MACIVER, Attorney at Law, 4400 Two Union Square, 601 Union Street, Seattle, 9 Washington 98101. 10 TCG SEATTLE and NEXTLINK WASHINGTON, LLC, by GREGORY J. KOPTA, Attorney at Law, 2600 Century 11 Square, 1501 Fourth Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98101. 12 TCG SEATTLE, by DEBORAH S. WALDBAUM, Western Region Counsel, 201 N. Civic Drive, Suite 210, 13 Walnut Creek, California 94596. 14 FRONTIER TELEMANAGEMENT, by SARA SIEGLER MILLER, Attorney at Law, 2000 NE 42nd, Suite 154, 15 Portland, Oregon 97213. 16 SHARED COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE, INC., by ELIZABETH THOMAS, Attorney at Law, 5000 Columbia 17 Center, 701 Fifth Avenue, 98104-7078. 18 ELECTRIC LIGHTWAVE, INC., by ROBERT MCMILLIN, Director Public Policy, 8100 Ne Parkway 19 Drive, Suite 150, Vancouver, Washington 98662. 20 UNITED TELEPHONE COMPANY OF THE NORTHWEST, by NANCY JUDY, Director Revenues and Regulatory, 902 21 Wasco Street, Hood River, Oregon 97031. 22 WITA, by RICHARD A. FINNIGAN, Attorney at Law, 2405 Evergreen Park Drive SW, Suite B-1, Olympia, 23 Washington 98501. 24 25 00003 1 APPEARANCES (Cont'd.) 2 MFS COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY, INC., and TST TELECOM OF WASHINGTON, INC., (via telephone) by 3 DOUGLAS BONNOR and RICHARD RINDLER, Attorneys at Law, 3000 K Street, Washington D. C. 4 TRACER, by ARTHUR A. BUTLER, Attorney at 5 Law, 601 Union Street, Suite 5450, Seattle, Washington 98101-2327. 6 THE WASHINGTON UTILITIES AND 7 TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION STAFF, by GREGORY J. TRAUTMAN and SHANNON E. SMITH, Assistant Attorneys 8 General, 1400 South Evergreen Park Drive Southwest, Olympia, Washington 98504-0128. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 00004 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 JUDGE STAPLETON: This hearing will please 3 come to order. This is a pre-hearing conference in 4 docket Nos. UT-960369, 960370 and 960371 regarding 5 pricing for intersection, unbundled elements, 6 transport, termination and resale. These matters were 7 consolidated for hearing in determination by 8 Commission order that was set by notice of pre-hearing 9 conference dated November 21, 1996. Today's date is 10 December 9, 1996. We are convened at Olympia, 11 Washington before Administrative Law Judge Terrence 12 Stapleton. Let's be off the record. 13 (Discussion off the record.) 14 JUDGE STAPLETON: Let's be back on the 15 record. Let's take appearances beginning with Mr. 16 Potter for General Telephone. 17 MR. POTTER: Richard E. Potter, 18 Associate General Counsel, GTE Northwest, 19 Incorporated. 1800 41st Street, Everett, Washington 20 98201. 21 MR. FINNIGAN: Richard Finnigan appearing 22 on behalf of the Washington Independent Telephone 23 Association. My address is 2405 Evergreen Park Drive 24 Southwest, Suite B-1, Olympia, Washington 98502. 25 MR. SHAW: Ed Shaw for U S WEST, 1600 Bell 00005 1 Plaza, Room 3206, Seattle, 98181. 2 MS. MATCHETT: Carol Matchett for Sprint 3 Communications Company LP, 1850 Gateway Drive, 7th 4 Floor, San Mateo, California, 94404. United is also 5 here. They are not represented by counsel, so if I 6 may add their appearances as well. 7 JUDGE STAPLETON: Thank you. 8 MS. MATCHETT: Their attorney is Seth M. 9 Lubin, United Telephone Company of the Northwest, 902 10 Wasco Street, MS No. 81, Hood River, Oregon 97031. 11 MR. MACIVER: Clyde H. MacIver. My address 12 is 4400 Two Union Square, 601 Union Street, Seattle, 13 Washington 98101. Appearing this morning on behalf of 14 MCI Telecommunications Corporation, MCI Metro Access 15 Transmission Services, Inc., WorldCom, Inc., d/b/a 16 LDDS WorldCom and Telecommunications Resellers 17 Association. 18 MS. THOMAS: Elizabeth Thomas, 701 Fifth 19 Avenue, Suite 5000, Seattle, Washington 98104 20 appearing on behalf of Shared Communications Services, 21 Inc. 22 MS. MILLER: Sara Siegler Miller, appearing 23 on behalf of Frontier Telemanagment. My address is 24 2000 Northeast 42nd, Suite 154, Portland, Oregon, 25 97213. 00006 1 MR. KOPTA: Gregory J. Kopta, Davis Wright 2 Tremaine LLP. 2600 Century Square, 1501 Fourth 3 Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98101 appearing on behalf 4 of TCG Seattle and Nextlink Washington LLC. 5 MS. WALDBAUM: Debbie Waldbaum, 201 North 6 Civic Drive, Suite 210, Walnut Creek, California, 7 94596, and I am appearing on behalf of TCG Seattle. 8 MR. BUTLER: Arthur A. Butler appearing on 9 behalf of TRACER. My address is Ater, Wynne, Hewitt 10 Dodson and Skerritt, LLP, Two Union Square, Suite 11 5450, 601 Union Street, Seattle, Washington 12 98101-2327. 13 MR. WAGGONER: Dan Waggoner appearing on 14 behalf of AT&T Communications. Address, 1501 Fourth 15 Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98101. 16 MS. PROCTOR: Susan Proctor also on behalf 17 of AT&T. My address is 1875 Lawrence Street, Suite 18 1575, Denver, Colorado, 80202. 19 MR. MCMILLIN: Rob McMillin, director of 20 public policy representing Electric Lightwave. My 21 address is 8100 Northeast Parkway Drive, Suite 150, 22 Vancouver, Washington 98662. 23 MR. TRAUTMAN: Gregory J. Trautman and 24 Shannon E. Smith, assistant attorneys general 25 representing Commission staff. 1400 South Evergreen 00007 1 Park Drive Southwest, Post Office Box 40128, Olympia, 2 Washington, 98504. 3 JUDGE STAPLETON: Yes. 4 MR RINDLER: This is Richard Rindler and 5 Douglas Bonnor from the law firm of Swidler and 6 Berlin, 3000 K Street, Washington D. C., representing 7 MFS Communications Company, Inc., and TST Telecom of 8 Washington Inc. 9 JUDGE STAPLETON: Thank you. Ms. Smith, 10 did you make an appearance or were you going to. 11 MS. SMITH: Yes, I made it through Greg 12 Trautman. 13 JUDGE STAPLETON: Ms. Waldbaum, Ms. Proctor 14 may I assume that for purposes of notice that service 15 on Mr. Waggoner and Mr. Kopta respectively is 16 sufficient. 17 MS. PROCTOR: Yes, that would be sufficient 18 for us. 19 MS. WALDBAUM: Yes. 20 JUDGE STAPLETON: Mr. Rindler, who will 21 receive service from Swidler Berlin? 22 MR. RINDLER: Mr. Bonnor. 23 JUDGE STAPLETON: Thank you. Is there 24 anyone else in the room who has arrived late who 25 wishes to make a formal appearance? Thank you. Let's 00008 1 be off the record. 2 (Discussion off the record.) 3 JUDGE STAPLETON: Let's be back on the 4 record. While we were off the record we discussed a 5 variety of procedural matters including a schedule for 6 this proceeding. On January 10 those parties 7 submitting a cost study for this proceeding will file 8 a description of the methodology and the model on 9 which they will be relying from one of the arbitration 10 proceedings which have been completed by this 11 Commission. Any amendments, modifications to that 12 model will be explicitly described in detail, and any 13 necessary changes to the narrative/testimony which is 14 provided in support of that methodology and model will 15 also be amended to reflect the modifications or 16 amendments that are made to the methodology itself. 17 The filing will also include a list of the 18 assumptions that were made in the model running and a 19 list of the outputs. The parties who are providing 20 methodology models and the other materials just 21 described may designate to the Commission in explicit 22 detail precisely which arbitration and which materials 23 from that arbitration it wishes to have as -- have 24 designated as its formal filing on January 10, and the 25 Commission will simply capture that material from the 00009 1 arbitration and have it available for ultimate entry 2 into the record. 3 Additionally, any of that material that 4 needs to be served on other parties can be 5 accomplished by the parties filing that material 6 designating two petitioning parties in the 7 arbitrations explicitly which material they are 8 recommending to the Commission for that filing, and 9 the parties then can capture that material from their 10 own participation in the arbitration. 11 In addition to that filing, the parties who 12 are filing that type of material supporting a cost 13 study will at a time convenient to requesting parties 14 provide access at the company's location or the 15 location of the in-state Washington attorney for 16 participants in those arbitrations to review those 17 materials as quickly in advance of January 10th as can 18 be accommodated. 19 There will be a workshop January 23rd and 20 24th here in Olympia, and that workshop will include 21 technical experts, technical witnesses from the 22 companies who will discuss the methodology models that 23 are being offered by those companies. 24 An initial round of written comments will 25 be due February 21st, a rebuttal round of comments 00010 1 will be due on March 17th. The Commission will 2 conduct hearings here in Olympia the week of April 7th 3 through the 11th and post hearing breifs will be due 4 on May 2nd, and, as earlier noted, there may be a page 5 limitation which will be dealt with during the 6 hearings. 7 Does anyone have a comment on anything? 8 MR. WAGGONER: Mr. Stapleton, when you were 9 describing what needed to be filed you mentioned that 10 the parties supporting cost studies should file 11 assumptions but you didn't mention inputs and 12 sometimes those are different things. Did you intend 13 to include inputs? 14 JUDGE STAPLETON: Yes, I did and thank you 15 for that clarification. Does anyone have any 16 objection to the interventions that were placed upon 17 the record here this morning? Hearing none those 18 interventions will be granted in a pre-hearing 19 conference order issued shortly. The Commission will 20 enter a protective order hopefully today. In order to 21 participate in reviewing any materials in advance of 22 the January 10th filing confidentiality agreement must 23 be executed and on file with the Commission for that 24 to take place. 25 Ms. Thomas, you had a request of the 00011 1 parties. 2 MS. THOMAS: Yes. My request was related 3 to the fact that one of my law partners, whose name is 4 Tom Allison, is married to Chairman Nelson. Tom 5 Allison will have no part in the handling of this case 6 by my office. However, I would like to request that 7 any party who has an objection to Chairman Nelson's 8 hearing the case in light of the fact that she's 9 married to my law partner please make that objection 10 now or else signify your waiver of any objection along 11 those lines. 12 JUDGE STAPLETON: Does anyone object to Ms. 13 Thomas's participation? Hearing none I will assume a 14 wear of any objection to her participation. 15 MR. SHAW: A question. Will the 16 commissioners be sitting on this? 17 JUDGE STAPLETON: Mr. Shaw, they will not. 18 At some point the parties may wish to decide among 19 themselves whether they are amenable to a waiver of an 20 initial order on this proceeding and submittal 21 directly to the Commission for final order and we can 22 deal with that somewhere down the road. The parties 23 have been encouraged by the bench to consolidate 24 presentations, to share witnesses and to coordinate 25 data and discovery on the -- especially on the parties 00012 1 who are filing and supporting costing materials in 2 this proceeding. 3 I assume we will need to invoke the 4 Commission's discovery rule and is there any reason to 5 amend the provisions in that rule for responses to 6 data requests? Hearing none the rule as written is 7 invoked and the time lines therein will apply. The 8 parties have also been encouraged by the bench to 9 undertake the type of informal workshops and 10 discussions that could lead to a consensus on a cost 11 study to reflect the initial phase of this proceeding, 12 which is the determination of a single costing 13 methodology and models for use in interconnection 14 arrangements. The bench is also available if parties 15 want to formalize those discussions in workshops and 16 for suspension of the schedule should significant 17 process be made. 18 Is there anything else that the parties 19 would like to raise at this point? 20 MR. FINNIGAN: One question for 21 clarification on filing. It's my understanding that 22 as part of the filings the disks to run the models 23 will not be formally part of the filing but they will 24 be available upon request from a party. Is that where 25 we stand on the issue? 00013 1 MR. WAGGONER: That's certainly correct 2 with the Hatfield model. I think the different models 3 have different computing requirements. You may want 4 to check with the other parties. 5 JUDGE STAPLETON: Is it amenable that we 6 not require the actual formula on the disk be filed 7 with the January 10th filing but it be made available 8 to those who will request it? 9 MR. SHAW: We plan to make available to 10 whomever requests it and signs a confidentiality order 11 the disks. I will warn you it takes a very big PC as 12 does Hatfield. 13 MR. WAGGONER: One request I would make, we 14 learned in Arizona that the RLCAP model was being 15 transferred from an old software called Symphony to 16 Excel and we would request that if in fact that's 17 occurred and it's available on Excel that it be made 18 available. 19 MR. SHAW: If it is I'm not aware that it 20 is. 21 JUDGE STAPLETON: Anything else to come 22 before us at this time? Thank you all very much. It 23 was a rather marathon session. Appreciate your 24 patience. We'll be off the record. 25 (Hearing adjourned at 11:20 a.m.)