UM 1177, TESTIMONY & EXHIBITS, 7/15/2005 - State of Oregon

Docket UM 1177Staff/1Marinos/1912345678910111213141516171819202122lower-cost wire centers in the service area of a rural ILEC whose support isbased on average cost across all its wire centers.Edge’s proposed service area includes wire centers of four ruralILECs. While all of Citizens’ wire centers are included, only some of the wirecenters that comprise the service areas of the other rural ILECs -- CenturyTel,Cascade and United -- are included in Edge’s proposed service area.However, Edge’s application includes data in Exhibits K and L for CenturyTeland Cascade that demonstrate that the wire centers that are included in Edge’sproposed service area are of lower density (therefore higher cost), on average,than the wire centers that are not included. Explained another way, Edge willbe serving the less dense, higher cost portions of the service areas ofCenturyTel and Cascade, not the more dense, lower cost areas. Only one wirecenter of United will be included, and that is a low-density wire center. Edgedemonstrates that granting designation in its proposed service area will notresult in cream-skimming.RECOMMENDATIONQ. DO YOU RECOMMEND THAT THE COMMISSION GRANT EDGE’SREQUEST FOR ETC STATUS?A. Yes. As explained above, Edge has demonstrated that it meets the basicrequirements for designation as an ETC, as well as the more rigorousrequirements and public interest standard adopted by the FCC in its March2005 order.