2. Background

Complainants, served by the defendant telephone company in Foresthill, California, alleged that they were limited to the services of AT&T California for their long distance calls and were unable to make 10XXX "dial around" calls. Foresthill admitted the allegations, but it stated that it was not obligated to provide interLATA equal access because it had never received an Access Service Request from an interexchange carrier to provide that service. Moreover, Foresthill stated that it was one of 12 small telephone companies that had been granted a temporary suspension of a dialing parity requirement for intraLATA toll calls pending a decision in Application (A.) 99-09-044.

The decision in that application, D.01-02-018, has now been issued. In addition to dealing with funding for small local exchange carriers, the decision also requires 12 of the carriers, including Foresthill, to implement intraLATA equal access pursuant to a 120-day schedule. Briefly, interexchange carriers are given 40 days to file Access Service Requests to provide intraLATA equal access in the service territory of each small local exchange carrier. Foresthill and the other carriers then must send notices to customers with information on how customers may subscribe to available intraLATA toll service providers.

In a letter dated February 15, 2001, to the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in this case, counsel for Foresthill stated that the company:

"intends to implement both interLATA access and intraLATA equal access in accordance with the schedule prescribed by the Commission. Therefore, if all goes according to plan, and if interexchange carriers elect to offer their services to its customers, all customers of Foresthill Telephone Co. will have access to multiple interexchange carriers in less than four months."