8. Ex Parte Communications

The Commission's ex parte communication rules set forth in Rule 8.2(a) shall apply in this proceeding.

IT IS ORDERED that:

1. The Commission hereby institutes this rulemaking on its own motion to develop measures to review and reform the California High Cost Fund-B Program.

2. The issues to be considered in this proceeding are set forth in the Preliminary Scoping Memo.

3. The Executive Director shall cause this Order Instituting Rulemaking to be served on all telecommunications carriers, the B-Fund Administrative Committee and parties on the service list of R.06-06-028.

4. The service list for R.06-06-028 shall be used to establish an initial service list for this proceeding. If a party is already on the service list in R.06-06-028, that party automatically will appear as a party on the service list in this proceeding with no further action required.

5. Any person or representative of an entity interested in becoming a party to this proceeding who is not on the service list in R.06-06-028, should contact the Commission's Process Office, 505 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California, 94102 (or Process_Office@cpuc.ca.gov) requesting to be placed on the service list for this proceeding.

6. Individuals interested only in monitoring the proceeding may request to be placed on the "Information Only" section of the service list. This service list will be posted on the Commission's website, www.cpuc.ca.gov.

7. The category of this rulemaking is preliminarily determined to be quasi-legislative as defined in Rule 1.3(d) of the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure. Ex parte communications are allowed pursuant to Rule 8.2(a). Pursuant to Rule 7.6, any party may file and serve an appeal of categorization no later than 10 days from the effective date of this OIR.

8. All parties shall abide by the Commission's electronic service rules contained in Rule 2.3.1 of the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure.

9. We hereby incorporate into the record of this new proceeding the progress reports and comments previously filed in R.06-06-028, as summarized in the dicta of this order, regarding threshold issues in the design of a reverse auction mechanism for selection of carrier of last resort and for setting the level of B-Fund support in designated high-cost areas.

10. The Working Groups that were previously formed in R.06-06-028 to develop proposals for a reverse auction mechanism are authorized to continue under the new proceeding. Based on the record that was developed in R.06-06-028 and which is incorporated into this proceeding, a Proposed Decision will be issued providing guidance on the disposition of threshold issues in the design of a reverse auction mechanism. Based on the disposition of these issues in the Proposed Decision, the Working Group will receive further direction to resume discussion of remaining reverse auction issues to be addressed.

11. The assigned Commissioner and Administrative Law Judge will set the schedule for this proceeding by subsequent rulings, as warranted, to develop the record and to bring this rulemaking to a conclusion.

This order is effective today.

Dated June 18, 2009, at San Francisco, California.

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