Docket UT-970325
February 10, 1999
Page 1

Agenda: February 10, 1999
Item:  


Docket: UT-970325
Companies: Intrastate Carrier Access Charge Reform
  Washington Exchange Carrier Association, et al.


Staff:  Tim Zawislak, Policy Research Specialist
  Betty Erdahl, Revenue Requirements Specialist
  Glenn Blackmon, Assistant Director - Telecommunications


Recommendation:

Grant the Washington Exchange Carrier Association and each of its individual 
member telephone companies an extension on the limited waiver for 
implementation of
WAC 480-120-540 as adopted through Docket UT-970325, until April 1, 1999.


Discussion:

On February 3, 1999, the Washington Exchange Carrier Association and each of 
its individual member telephone companies (WECA, et al.) filed a petition for 
waiver of implementation of WAC 480-120-540, the Commission’s new “Terminating 
Access Charge” rule resulting from the rulemaking activity in Docket UT-970325, 
which was adopted on June 25, 1998.  Without the waiver WECA and each member 
company would need to have revised access charge tariffs in place [Non-traffic 
sensitive (NTS) and traffic sensitive (TS), respectively for WECA and each 
company] by February 16, 1999.     The actual effective date of the new rule 
was December 20, 1998, but WECA was granted an initial limited waiver until 
February 16, 1999. 

WECA, et al. requests that their implementation of WAC 480-120-540 be waived 
and extended until June 1, 1999.  The reasons for the extension are generally 
the following:

•To accommodate the order on reconsideration in Docket UT-980311(a).
•To productively continue informal industry discussions in Docket UT-971140.

Staff is in support of these goals and believes it would be more prudent to 
grant the extension until April 1, 1999.  This will allow accommodation, 
progress, and general consistency with the other ILECs (U S WEST, GTE-NW, and 
Sprint/United); while allowing the smaller companies extra time to prepare 
their filings.  Staff expects that the companies will file proposed tariffs by
March 1, 1999, with an effective date of April 1, 1999.