5. Managerial and Technical Qualifications
To be granted a CPCN for authority to provide local exchange and interexchange telecommunications services, an applicant must make a reasonable showing of managerial and technical expertise in telecommunications or a related business. DTS supplied professional biographical information on its management in Section XVI of its application. DTS' two principles each have over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. The principles are also the founding partners and current operators of DTS' parent company in Texas, DialToneServices, which began operating in Texas in 2005.
DTS has contracted with a consulting group that has 40 years of experience assisting rural local exchange carriers in upgrading their local and interexchange networks using various public and private financing sources. DTS' consultant currently supports several incumbent local exchange carriers in California.
DTS disclosed that its parent company DialToneServices received a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL) in February 2009 for failing to file the newly required annual Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) certificate.6 DialToneServices appealed the FCC's omnibus NAL on the basis that the required filings were not listed on the Wireline Competition Bureau's checklist of common carrier filing and compliance requirements, which is relied upon by very small companies with little in-house staff to ensure compliance with FCC requirements.
On June 28, 2010, the FCC adopted a consent decree terminating and cancelling the NAL. Under the consent decree DialToneServices agreed, among other more procedural requirements, to voluntarily make a $5,200 contribution and train its personnel regarding use of CPNI. DTS asserts that there are no other reportable incidents.
Except as noted above, DTS states that no one associated with or employed by DTS as an affiliate, officer, director, partner, or owner of more than 10% of DTS was previously associated with a telecommunications carrier that filed for bankruptcy; was sanctioned by the FCC or any state regulatory agency for failure to comply with any regulatory statute, rule, or order, or had been found either civilly or criminally liable by a court of appropriate jurisdiction for a violation of §17000, et seq. of the California Business and Professions Code or for any action which involved misrepresentations to consumers, nor is currently under investigation for similar violations.
For the above reasons, we find that DTS is in compliance with the managerial and technical requirements of D.95-12-056.
6 FCC Order No. DA 09-426.
