ALJ/MOD-POD/KJB/avs Date of Issuance 12/5/2008
Decision 08-12-002 December 4, 2008
BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
James Tobin, Attorney at Law, and
William C. Harrelson, for
Pac-West Telecomm, Inc., complainant.
Peter A. Casciato, Attorney at Law,
for Comcast Phone of California, LLC,
and Randolph Deutsch, Attorney at Law,
for AT&T Corp., defendant.
MODIFIED PRESIDING OFFICER'S DECISION
1. Summary
The first captioned case, Case (C.) 07-09-010, involves legal and factual issues essentially identical to those involved in C.04-10-024, Pac-West Telecomm, Inc. vs. AT&T Communications of California, Inc., which was decided in favor of Pac-West Telecomm, Inc. (Pac-West) in Decision (D.) 06-06-055. Following the reasoning of D.06-06-055, we find that Comcast Phone of California, LLC (Comcast) owes unpaid termination charges in the amount of $379,446.43 to Pac-West for terminating traffic originated by Comcast during the period April 4, 2004 through August 27, 2007.
The second captioned case, C.07-11-015, was consolidated with C.07-09-010 by order of the presiding Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). It involves contractual and procedural issues that are here addressed for the first time. We find that:
(a) Pursuant to the terms of a Network Services Agreement (NSA) entered into between Comcast and AT&T Corp. AT&T Corp. is responsible for payment of termination charges imposed by Pac-West on Comcast-originated traffic pursuant to Pac-West's intrastate tariff;
(b) Notwithstanding the terms of the NSA, Comcast remains liable to Pac-West for the unpaid termination charges;
(c) A Stipulation and Mutual Release (Release) entered into between Pac-West and AT&T Corp. on November 19, 2007 bars Pac-West from recovering the unpaid termination charges from AT&T Corp.;
(d) The Release does not bar Pac-West from recovering the unpaid termination charges from Comcast; and
(e) Case 07-09-010 is closed but C.07-011-015 remains open to resolve the question of whether Comcast may recover the unpaid termination charges from AT&T Corp.
