Agenda Date:  September 13, 2000
Item Number:  

Docket:  UT-001351
Company Name: Beaver Creek Telephone Company

Staff Team:  Tim Zawislak, Policy Research Specialist
   Bob Shirley, Telecommunications Analyst
                                   
Recommendation: 

Take No Action on the Request for Less than Statutory Notice, and Issue an 
Order Approving Beaver Creek Telephone Company’s initial tariff sheets, as 
filed.

Discussion
On September 1, 2000, Beaver Creek Telephone Company (Beaver Creek) filed 
initial selected tariff sheets illustrating rates and services based on its 
actual costs and engineering plans.

Beaver Creek has made this filing in order to move closer to its goal of 
acquiring funding in order to build out the infrastructure necessary to allow 
it to offer telephone service in two formerly “unserved areas” (the Silverton 
exchange and the Devil’s Club exchange located in Snohomish and King counties, 
respectively).  The company has previously sought and received Eligible 
Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) statusETC status is a necessary prerequisite 
for receiving federal universal service funding. for these areas in Docket 
UT-990392.

The company is requesting a less than statutory notice (or LSN) effective date 
because the company intends to secure financing through the United States 
Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS), and it 
believes the LSN would enable the company to be considered for loan approval 
during the first quarter of 2001.  Staff believes LSN approval is not necessary 
because even assuming the loan is approved and construction goes as planned, 
the company will not be able to offer service until September 1, 2001, at the 
earliest.  The Commission may approve the tariff sheets today, without LSN, 
which would still enable Beaver Creek to timely fulfill its loan application 
process without compromising statutory intent.

The proposed tariff pages include local access rates of $20.00 per month for 
residences, and $30.00 per month for businesses.  Rates for installation are 
$35.00 if no premise visit is required, and an additional $40.00 for a premise 
visit.  There are no additional charges to end users for the initial extension 
of service.  Carrier access charges are also included in the filing.  Most 
notably, Beaver Creek proposes an initial intrastate Terminating Switched 
Access Universal Service Rate of 27.835 cents per minute.  This level of 
universal service support results from the relatively small number of 
subscribers, as well as the topographic and geographic characteristics of the 
exchanges.

Staff has analyzed the tariff pages and finds the rates to be fair, just, 
reasonable and sufficient.

                                                    
 1ETC status is a necessary prerequisite for receiving federal universal 
service funding.