Pursuant to Rule 14.6(c)(9) of the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure, the Commission on its own motion has reduced the comment period to 19 days due to public necessity. Comments were filed on November 6, 2007, and reply comments were filed on November 13, 2007.18 We address parties' recommendations throughout this decision but separately address two recommendations. TURN and DRA recommend that we exempt transactions that could affect the provision of basic service from the procedures adopted herein. Tier 2 and other Commission procedures afford protections for such a scenario. Withdrawals of basic service and market entry require applications. If an asset transfer could affect the provision of basic service and a valid protest is filed, staff no longer would have discretion to review the transfer. Where staff lacks discretion, we will address the requested relief in a resolution. We may grant or deny the transfer or require a more complete record. Parties recommend that we incorporate the record of this proceeding in the full exemption from ยง 851 rulemaking. We concur that it would be efficient to rely on relevant portions of the record developed in this proceeding in the rulemaking. In the rulemaking, we will address incorporating relevant comments filed herein.
18 AT&T California, TURN/DRA, Surewest, and Verizon filed opening comments. AT&T California, TURN/DRA, and Verizon filed reply comments.