V. Approval of Applicant's Sale of USRC, and Purchase and Sale of Choctaw

Applicant sold USRC to Alliance. Both USRC and Alliance were authorized to resell interexchange services. Therefore, Alliance was qualified to purchase USRC. USRC filed an advice letter in February 2000 requesting approval of the sale, and cancellation of its CPCN. The advice letter was approved. USRC has been dissolved, although it is winding up the dissolution in some states. The fact that the advice letter was approved does not eliminate the fact that it was filed after the sale had taken place, and that customers were not given proper notice. However, the settlement addresses the errors. In addition, given the amount of time that has passed since the sale, and the fact that USRC no longer exists, attempting to provide notice to the affected customers at this time would serve no purpose, and would likely not be feasible. Therefore, we confirm our earlier approval of the sale.

Applicant purchased and subsequently sold Choctaw. Applicant, as discussed below, is technically and financially qualified as a limited facilities-based and resale provider of local exchange services. Choctaw is authorized to resell local exchange and interexchange services. Since the requirements for authorization to provide limited facilities-based and resold local exchange services exceed the requirements to resell local exchange and interexchange services, Applicant was qualified to purchase Choctaw. 1-800-Reconex is authorized to resell local exchange and interexchange services. Therefore, it is technically qualified to purchase Choctaw. 1-800-Reconex filed an advice letter requesting approval of its purchase of Choctaw. The Advice letter was approved. The fact that the advice letter was approved does not eliminate the fact that (1) Applicant purchased Choctaw prior to the filing of this application, (2) the sale of Choctaw took place prior to the Commission's approval of the initial purchase by Applicant, and (3) the sale to Reconex took place before the advice letter was filed. However, since the settlement addresses these errors, we will approve the purchase of Choctaw, and confirm our earlier approval of the sale.