4. Revision to General Order 169
In the Scoping Memo, the assigned Commissioner invited the parties to draw our attention to possible errors or omissions in the state video franchise certificate or other attachments to D.07-03-014.29 The sole response to this invitation is by AT&T California, which notes that GO 169 fails to reflect the Commission's discussion in D.07-03-014 indicating it would require a state video franchise holder to give notice to incumbent cable operators of the holder's imminent market entry. SureWest TeleVideo and Small LECs support adding this notice requirement to GO 169.30 There is no opposition to AT&T California's recommendation that GO 169 expressly set forth this notice requirement.
The relevant discussion in D.07-03-014 clearly shows both that we wanted the notice requirement included in GO 169 and that the requirement has a statutory basis:
We ... conclude that we should require State Video Franchise Holders to provide concurrent notice to affected incumbent cable operators. The basis for this conclusion is Pub. Util. Code § 5840(o)(3) [which] specifies that an incumbent cable operator's right to abrogate a local franchise is triggered when "a video service provider that holds a state franchise provides ... notice ... to a local jurisdiction that it intends to initiate providing video service in all or part of that jurisdiction." Implicit in this abrogation right is the assumption that an incumbent cable operator will know when a State Video Franchise Holder provides notice of imminent market entry. To ensure this assumption is fulfilled, we modify the General Order to require State Video Franchise Holders to provide affected incumbent cable operators concurrent notice of imminent market entry.31
Through oversight, GO 169 failed to include the notice requirement. We should correct that oversight in today's decision.
Section VI.B of GO 169 pertains to "State Video Franchise Obligations." We now add the following notice of imminent market entry "obligation" to that section:
A State Video Franchise Holder must concurrently notify each affected local jurisdiction and each affected incumbent cable operator of the holder's imminent market entry. The State Video Franchise Holder must provide the concurrent notice to the incumbent cable operator before initiating Video Service pursuant to a State Video Franchise, and any local jurisdiction within which, or within any part of which, the holder intends to provide Video Service.
29 Through inadvertence, the form of certificate attached to D.07-03-014 did not include certain language specifically required by DIVCA. On our own motion, we modified D.07-03-014 to revise the form of certificate. We also authorized the Director of the Communications Division to prepare a proposed resolution for our consideration to make future changes to forms, as may be needed. See D.07-04-034.
30 See AT&T California, Opening Comments at pp. 3-4; Small LECs, Reply Comments at p. 5; SureWest TeleVideo, Reply Comments at p. 7.
31 D.07-03-014, mimeo. text accompanying notes 376-78 (notes omitted, emphasis added).
