Urgent: Comment to PUC on Rural Telco Competition Petitions by Friday, Nov. 16
Message Posted November 13, 2001
If your school or library is served by one of the following rural telephone companies (Buffalo Valley, Conestoga Telephone or Frontier Companies), you have until this Friday, November 16, to have comments filed with the PA Public Utilities Commission regarding whether they should be granted another year of protection from competition. Although this is very short notice, I strongly encourage you to take 5 minutes and write the PUC if you are affected.
Background:
In 1997, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission granted several rural telephone companies' requests to suspend the interconnection obligations imposed by the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996. However, the Order contained the following language:
10. That the availability of any Section of 251(f)(2) relief provided by this Commission be conditioned on compliance with 66 pa. C.S. 3003(d) and deployment of an advanced telecommunications network in rural Pennsylvania -- especially with regard to the public schools, libraries, and other public facilities serving rural Pennsylvania.
11. That a petitioner's failure to comply with Ordering Paragraph No. 10 be deemed grounds for revocation of any Section 251 (f)(2) relief provided by this Commission.
On November 10, these 3 companies filed requests with the PUC for an additional year of protection. Comments on whether the PUC should grant their requests are due to the PUC within 7 days -- ending this Friday, Nov. 16.
What to do:
If your school or library is serviced by one of these 3 companies, and you believe that company has not met its obligations under the PUC Order, please write a brief letter to the PUC by this Friday describing one of these issues:
1. You are not happy with the continuation of the status quo.
2. Your school or library has unmet needs for advanced service (which says that these companies did not meet their obligations under the original order to use the time to modernize their networks).
3. You strongly desire competition for all local services.
Express mail your comments to:
Secretary's Bureau
Commonwealth Keystone Building
400 North Street
Harrisburg, PA 17120
RE: Doc. No. P-00971244 (for Buffalo Valley and Conestoga Telephone comments)
RE: Doc. No. P-00981393 (for Frontier Companies comments)
Please note: The Commission will not accept documents delivered by fax or by e-mail.
If possible, please fax a copy of your comments to PDE at 717-783-5420 or e-mail to jtritt@state.pa.us for our records.
If you have any questions, please contact Mark Santayana in the PA Office of Educational Technology at 717-783-9806.
Other Rural Telco's:
There are approx. 20 additional telco's that will be up for renewal in early 2002. We will be sending information regarding these petitions at a future date, but you may want to begin collecting your thoughts.
Julie Tritt Schell
Director, Office of Educational Technology
Pennsylvania Department of Education
(717) 705-4486
(717) 787-7222 - fax
www.L2L.org
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