III. Comparison of Pacific's and Verizon's Results

The service quality aspect of this proceeding focused both on Verizon and Pacific, the two largest local exchange carriers (LECs) in California, with the following number of access lines as of 2001:

CALIFORNIA LEC YEAR-2001 NUMBER OF ACCESS LINES⁷

It is helpful to examine the performance of these two companies together, because we are able to gain comparative data that we might not otherwise have had. As we discuss in detail below, while Verizon exhibits some service quality problems, Verizon's performance is better than Pacific's and creates a context for analyzing Pacific's results.

In this decision, we first discuss the measures of service quality we have at our disposal, and then make findings regarding each party's individual service quality results. It is important to divide up the discussion between Pacific and Verizon so the decision is clear on which results pertain to which carrier. While this division results in some duplication in the discussion, we believe it is the best way to determine the correct results for each carrier.