III. Discussion

AT&T's methodology to develop its proxy rate is more comprehensive than that used by the CLECs so I will use AT&T's model. AT&T uses its standard tariffed business and residential service as a starting point.⁹ While usage is included in the residential rate, AT&T adds $23.99 for unlimited business usage, in contrast to the 500 minutes at $2.70 modeled by the CLECs. I do not find AT&T's usage assumptions to be reasonable. AT&T states that it selected the unlimited calling standard because it is "comparable to the UNE-P model, where high usage was relatively inexpensive."¹⁰ AT&T presents no proof that actual usage on the average exceeds the 500 minutes proposed by the CLECs. I cannot accept the "Cadillac" of usage which would allow for unlimited local calling. The CLECs' proposal is reasonable and AT&T's is not. Therefore, I will adopt the $2.70 proposed by the CLECs, for 500 minutes of usage, rather than the $23.99 unlimited usage proposed by AT&T.

AT&T includes three vertical features, rather than the two features proposed by the Movant CLECs, and I agree with AT&T that three features is appropriate. As AT&T states, this is consistent with the FCC's finding in the California Section 271 proceeding that "three features...is the average number of features per access line for both retail and wholesale usage."¹¹ AT&T also points out that movant Fones4All's own website makes clear that three features or more is common.¹² Likewise, movant Call America's website lists more than 20 available features that it markets to customers."¹³ I concur that AT&T's selection of three features per line is reasonable.

AT&T has included the EUCL charge and points out that the CLECs' calculation fails to include or even acknowledge the EUCL charge. It is appropriate to include the EUCL, so I have included the $4.38 EUCL in my calculations.

AT&T includes $3.40 for access charges, saying that the access component is necessary and appropriate in order to account for AT&T's lost opportunity to bill interexchange carriers (IXCs) for access charges. A CLEC purchasing UNE-P was entitled to sell exchange access to IXCs delivering or receiving traffic destined to or from a CLEC carrier customer. Accordingly, there was no need for AT&T Carrier Access Billing System (CABS) to process IXC billing information, and it is not set up to do so. In contrast, states AT&T, in a resale arrangement the incumbent LEC rather than the reselling CLEC is entitled to collect access charges from IXCs. Here, however, because CABS is used to bill UNE-P lines, AT&T states that it does not have the ability to bill the IXC for exchange access usage. It is therefore appropriate to include an access component to recover those lost charges. I disagree. The CLECs states that since most CLECs use another carrier to provide long distance service, it is inappropriate for AT&T to impose access charges on the CLECs. The access charge of $3.40 has been removed from the model.

To summarize, I have adopted AT&T's assumptions in its model for the price for the access line, the number of custom calling features, and the inclusion of the EUCL. I have reduced the local usage charges for business customers to 500 minutes at $2.70 per month, rather than the $23.99 proposed by AT&T, which includes unlimited usage. I have also eliminated the access charges proposed by AT&T, since most CLECs use another carrier to provide long distance service. The result is a blended rate of $25.19. The Movant CLECs shall pay this rate until they have submitted the orders to transition their customers off of UNE-P service.

In their motion, the Movant CLECs agree that once they have completed submission of their transition orders, AT&T should be permitted to "true up" the charges imposed on them to a level based on the first month of measured resale usage and features for each former UNE-P line. The Movant CLECs expect that this will result in higher charges for some lines and lower for others. However, AT&T points out that a hot cut to UNE-L would not result in a conversion to AT&T's Customer Records Information System (CRIS) billing since those loops would still be handled by CABS. Accordingly, tracking of the actual usage that the CLECs claim would enable a true-up would not be possible.

To the extent that the UNE-P lines are transitioned to resale service, AT&T shall be permitted to true up the charges as described above.

⁹ CLECs used the resale rate for measured PBX trunk lines.

¹⁰ Smith Declaration ¶ 19.

¹¹ Memorandum Opinion and Order, Application by SBC Communications Inc., Pacific Bell Telephone Company, and Southwestern Bell Communications Services Inc. for Authorization To Provide InterLATA Services in California, 17 FCC Rcd 25650, ¶ 61 (2002).

¹² See www.fones4all.com/fones4all_us/bundlepackages.html.

¹³ See www.callamericacom.com/products_services/local_feature_description.html.