2. Background

The Commission issued this Order Instituting Investigation and Order to Show Cause (OII) regarding Vycera in response to consumer complaints that Vycera made unauthorized transfers of telephone service as well as billings for unordered services. Commission staff also provided the results of its investigation, which showed that Vycera used an automated third-party verification method that failed to produce reliable verification of customers' orders. More seriously, staff suspected that some tape recordings that purported to verify orders had been altered.

On July 29, 2004, the assigned Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) directed the parties to meet and confer regarding issues in this proceeding, and to then file prehearing conference statements addressing the potential for mutual agreement on some or all issues in this proceeding. CPSD and Vycera each filed a prehearing conference statement indicating optimism that some issues could be resolved through agreement, but recommending that hearings be set. The prehearing conference statements included substantially similar proposed schedules.

The CPSD and Vycera participated in the prehearing conference on August 26, 2004. The issues and the proposed schedule were discussed. The parties pledged to mutually cooperate in providing discovery and attempting to resolve by agreement as many disputed factual and legal issues as possible prior to hearing.

On September 16, 2004, the assigned Commissioner and ALJ issued the scoping memo for this proceeding, which included a schedule submitting testimony and evidentiary hearings.

On January 5, 2005, the parties filed the settlement agreement, which resolves all outstanding issues in this proceeding.