9.11.07 State Update

Maine- The Maine PUC detariffed all CLEC retail services as well as ILEC retail bundles and long distance. Because the ILECs still control over 75 percent of the state's local access lines, the PUC will continue require tariffing of ILEC local services.
California- The California PUC simplified the requirements for carriers making changes to services and rate plans. Most advice letters will now go into effect the same day as filed. This applies to promotional offers, changes to services, or introductions of new services. Advice letters may be protested up to 20 days after filing.
Illinois- A court upheld an Illinois Commerce Commission ruling requiring three rural ILECs to negotiate interconnection agreements with Sprint. The rural ILECs are Harrisonville Telephone; Marseilles Telephone; and Metamora Telephone. The IL CC had ruled that the ILECs must negotiate ICAs with Sprint even though Sprint intended to use the ICAs to provide wholesale VoIP services.  The ILECs argued that such services were not common carrier services so they should be protected from interconnection by the Telecom Act of 96's rural ILEC exemption. The court ruled in favor of the IL CC and Sprint. Sprint benefited from the FCC's decision last March overruling the South Carolina PSC and Nebraska PSC's attempts to shield rural ILECs from interconnection with Sprint.
Maryland- The Maryland PSC is investigating Verizon's allegedly rising rate of service quality complaints. According to the MPSC, customer complaints about slow outage repairs has increased 50 percent this year, and Verizon has missed 20 percent of repair appointments. The MPSC was not happy with the first batch of documents produced by Verizon in the investigation and demanded additional information. Verizon then provided additional documents in an attempt to satisfy the MPSC's data requests.
West Virginia- The West Virginia PSC squashed an attempt by Level 3 to raise its intrastate access charges. Level 3 tried to raise its rates from less than a penny/minute to 3.3 cents/minute. For justification, Level 3 argued that it was simply charging tariffed rates of other carriers. The WV PSC rejected the attempt finding that Level 3 was selectively mirroring the highest charge in the state, not charging a reasonable amount.