(1) Phase I shall be for determining whether a qualifying community of interest exists between or among exchanges. Upon receipt of proper application or proper findings following a commission investigation, the commission will order the regulated telephone company (or companies) and request any unregulated company (or companies) in the exchanges involved to initiate a call usage study, which shall be for the most recent three months for which data are available, to determine calling patterns between or among exchanges (if there is good reason to believe that one or more of the designated three months is an inaccurate representative month, the next most recent month or months for which data are available shall be included) . The study must be completed and filed with the commission within 45 days of the commission order (an extension of time may be granted for good cause) . In the event that a regulated or unregulated local exchange company applies for EAS the call usage study may be submitted with the application.

(2) A sufficient indication of community of interest between the exchanges will be deemed to exist if, for at least two of the three months studied:

(a) the petitioning exchange averages at least eight calls per main billed account per month to the petitioned exchange; and

(b) more than 50 percent of the customers (based on main billed accounts) in the petitioning exchange make two or more calls per month to the petitioned exchange.

(3) If the study demonstrates a sufficient indication of community of interest its filing shall be accompanied by a statement of the company's (or companies') position on the requested EAS, with rationale for that position, and shall be followed by a commission notice to interested persons with an opportunity to object and an opportunity to request a hearing.

(4) If the study demonstrates no sufficient indication of community of interest its filing may be accompanied by a statement of the company's (or companies') position and shall be followed by notice to interested persons with an opportunity to object and an opportunity to request a hearing.

(5) If a proposed EAS arrangement does not qualify using the calling patterns in (2) , above, the applicant can attempt to establish, through economic, demographic, or other evidence, that a community of interest does exist for the majority of the affected customers. For the determination of community of interest in the absence of qualifying calling criteria, the evidence and argument must be clear and convincing. In this regard the commission will focus its consideration on factors such as local calling for law enforcement, fire protection, medical, and other emergency services. Other factors such as local calling to schools, local government agencies, churches, shopping and service centers, agricultural and civic organizations, and employment centers can also be considered, but may be of secondary importance. In addition argument may be made that the call usage study, although not meeting the threshold criteria, establishes community of interest from another standpoint (e.g., the two-way pattern is significant) . If this option to establish community of interest is pursued, the applicant must file a notice of intent to establish community interest by the time fixed for objecting in response to the commission notice referenced in (4) , above.

(6) If objection is received to the call usage study or if a notice of intent to establish community of interest is filed or if the commission determines that it is in the public interest, a contested case will be commenced and a procedural order will be established.

(7) Following the contested case, or following the determination that no contested case is necessary, the commission will issue an order in phase I stating its determination that:

(a) a sufficient community of interest between the proposed EAS exchanges does not exist or that EAS implementation is not otherwise in the public interest (in which cases the proposed EAS arrangement will not be eligible for petitioning or consideration by the commission again for 24 months) ; or

(b) a sufficient community of interest exists to justify the consideration of EAS between the exchanges (in which case phase II will commence as provided in ARM 38.5.1315) .

(8) For purposes of this rule and related rules, qualifying calls in "calls per main billed account" and "call usage study" shall be limited to 1+ and 0+ calls.

 

Rule