III. Review of the Proposed Application

Applicant's legal name is SCC Communications Corporation. Applicant is a Delaware corporation, with its principal place of business located at 6285 Lookout Road, Boulder, CO 80303. A certified copy of the Company's Articles of Organization was attached to the Application as Exhibit 1.

SCC's application has been reviewed for compliance with the certification-and-entry rules (Certification Rules) adopted in Appendices A and B of D.95-07-054 and subsequent decisions in R.95-04-043/I.95-04-044. The Certification Rules are intended to protect the public against unqualified or unscrupulous carriers, while also encouraging and easing the entry of CLC providers to promote the rapid growth of competition.

Applicant seeks authority to provide facilities-based and resold local exchange telecommunications services in the service territories of Pacific and Verizon, Roseville Telephone Company and Citizen Telephone Company. Applicant is currently seeking only the limited facilities-based authority described in D.99-10-025 and D.99-12-050. Under this limited authority, Applicant shall not construct any new or extend any existing outside plant in California to provide the services for which it seeks authority.

In this order, we will grant Applicant's request for limited facilities-based authority to provide local exchange services utilizing resale of other carriers' services and/or utilizing UNEs and/or equipment installed solely within existing buildings and structures.

SCC asserts that in order to aggregate and transport emergency calls in conjunction with its 911 SafetyNetSM service , SCC will require the same sort of interconnection and collocation afforded to certified CLCs. SCC, therefore, requests that the Commission find that SCC is entitled to the rights of interconnection, collocation, resale, and access to unbundled network elements enjoyed by CLCs under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Act).

We take notice that the issue of whether the services proposed to be offered by SCC constitute telecommunications services as defined by the Act is currently before the Commission in A.00-12-025, regarding arbitration between SCC and Pacific. Pacific claimed that the 911 service proposed to be offered by SCC is not a telecommunications service as defined under the Act, but is instead merely a database service for the selective routing of 911 calls.

In a concurrent decision being adopted today in A.00-12-025, we affirm the Final Arbitrator's Report. As noted in today's decision in A.00-12-025, we agree with the Arbitrator that while SCC does not intend to provide traditional dial-up telephone services in California, and provides only one portion of what constitutes local exchange service, namely 9-1-1 calls, the fact that it does not provide all the services normally thought of as local exchange does not mean that it is not providing a telecommunications service. The Arbitrator in A.00-12-025 found that the language of the 1996 Act does not limit the definition of telephone exchange services in the manner in which Pacific contends. As we conclude in today's concurrent decision in A.00-12-025, providing a 9-1-1 connection, for another carrier or for other customers, is a telecommunications service. SCC provides a service that transports a 9-1-1 call and therefore SCC transmits information of the user's choosing, between or among points specified by the user, as set forth in Section 153(43)² of the Act. SCC does provide intercommunication among subscribers, within the meaning of Section 153(47)³ of the Act, because by transporting the 9-1-1 call to the appropriate PSAP, SCC enables an end user to talk to someone at the PSAP and vice versa. Therefore, in today's decision in A.00-12-025, we find that SCC is a telecommunications carrier and is entitled to request arbitration of an interconnection agreement with Pacific.

Applicant demonstrated that it possesses the requisite managerial qualifications, technical competence, and financial resources to provide facilities-based local exchange service. Applicant attached Exhibit 4, a copy of financial statements of SCC for the year 1999. Exhibit 4 demonstrates the financial capability of Applicant to provide the services described in this Application, showing unencumbered cash of at least $100,000 readily available to meet the expenses of the proposed operations.

Exhibit 12 lists Applicant's senior management and key personnel actively involved in Applicant's telecommunications business. This information demonstrates that these individuals have the requisite knowledge and capabilities to supervise Applicant's provision of proposed telecommunications services.

Applicant was also required to submit proposed tariffs which conform to the consumer protection rules set forth in Appendix B of D.95-07-054. Upon review of the draft tariff, we have identified certain deficiencies as listed in Appendix B of this order. All outstanding tariff deficiencies identified as Appendix B must be corrected before SCC may otherwise begin to offer service.

Information concerning Applicant's estimates of the number of customers after one year and after five years was also provided.

Based upon our review, we conclude SCC has satisfactorily complied with our certification requirements for limited facilities-based and resale authority, subject to correcting any tariff deficiencies identified in Appendix B, and satisfying the additional conditions set forth in the ordering paragraphs below. Accordingly, we grant SCC authority to offer local exchange service utilizing resale of other carriers' services or limited facilities-based service utilizing UNEs and equipment located solely within existing buildings and structures within the territories of Pacific, Verizon, RTC, and CTC.