Docket:   UT-991338
 Company Name:  Beaver Creek Telephone Company

Staff:    Jacob Wexler, Telecommunications Policy Specialist
    Bob Shirley, Regulatory Consultant

Recommendation:

Issue an order registering Beaver Creek Telephone Company as a 
telecommunications company pursuant to RCW 80.36.350, and waiving WAC 
480-121-010.

Discussion:

Beaver Creek Telephone Company has filed to become a registered telephone 
company to offer basic telecommunications services to currently unserved areas 
in Snohomish and King counties.  These unserved areas are locations not 
encompassed within the tariffed exchanges of any other local exchange provider. 
This represents the first registration in decades of a local exchange carrier 
that has as its initial purpose service of unserved areas in rural Washington.

Beaver Creek requests a waiver of WAC 480-121-010, Filing of Registration 
Application, Competitive Classification, and Price List, which requires a 
company wishing to provide telecommunications services in the state to 
simultaneously submit an application for registration, a petition for 
competitive classification, and a price list.  While Beaver Creek has filed an 
adequate application for registration, it is not currently able to support a 
petition for competitive classification or to provide a price list.  The 
registration, however, is a necessary step at this time if Beaver Creek is to 
provide services in these areas. 

To be classified as competitive, a company must provide names of competing 
service providers.   Beaver Creek, however, will likely be the sole provider of 
service in the Silverton and Devil’s Club (Hobart) exchanges.  Without 
competitive classification, Beaver Creek is not permitted to file a price 
list.  Nor can it include a description of services and prices until its costs 
and financial resources are clarified through a process that requires this 
registration.  

As Beaver Creek progresses with its plans to design and construct facilities, 
staff will work with them to submit a tariff with fair, just, reasonable, and 
sufficient prices for services, and rates for terminating access for the 
support of high-cost services.

Conclusion:

It is in the public interest to register Beaver Creek Telephone Company as a 
telecommunications company.