II. Background
Applicant, a Delaware corporation, seeks authority to provide full facilities-based local exchange and interexchange services. Applicant's principal place of business is located at 1901 S. Meyers Road, Suite 190, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181.
In this application, Applicant requests full facilities-based authority to provide local exchange services in the service territories of Pacific Bell Telephone Company, Verizon California Inc., SureWest Telephone,2 and Citizens Telephone Company and interexchange services statewide.
Applicant plans to initially offer point to point circuits carried on fiber optic facilities. These point to point circuits will carry the Radio Frequency traffic of wireless services providers (WSPs) between Applicant's newly-deployed share distributed antenna systems and the WSPs' existing facilities. Applicant states that these fiber-fed shared distributed antenna systems will extend wireless networks, will address the increasing demand from WSPs for a solution to long-standing service coverage problems, and will provide network enhancements that add capacity to accommodate high speed data applications.
Applicant proposes to provide these services through a combination of its own facilities and services leased from existing carriers and other suppliers. The fiber optic facilities will be deployed primarily in an aerial configuration, attached to utility poles and other aerial support structures. However, for some routes, Applicant may need to construct additional facilities in or near to rights-of-way.3
The requirements for the expanded CPCN authority requested by Applicant here are the same as those previously met by Applicant for its existing CPCN (U-6959-C), except for the requirements of the CEQA as applied to any proposed full facilities-based construction by Applicant.4 Therefore, the only issue before us in this application is whether Applicant's proposed construction and process for requesting determinations of exemption from CEQA by Commission staff meets the requirements of CEQA and should be approved. Applicant remains subject to the requirements of D.05-07-004, which granted Applicant authority to provide limited facilities-based interexchange services.
2 SureWest Telephone was formerly known as Roseville Telephone Company.
3 ClearLinx states in its Supplement that its plant construction will differ from other, more traditional telecommunications providers because:
· Its projects consist largely of deploying aerial facilities (fiber optic cable and pole-mounted antenna node equipment);
· Its projects will cover short distances;
· Its projects are widely separated geographically, and are not interconnected in a traditional network; and
· Its projects are driven by customer needs, so that ClearLinx does not know very far in advance where its next project will be located.
4 Applicant has also filed financial documentation, information regarding required deposits, and biographical information regarding the experience of its management, which demonstrates that Applicant otherwise meets the requirements for a full facilities-based CPCN.
