ELI Requests Utah PSC to Investigate Anti-competitive Tactics

Business Wire, Feb 11, 1997

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 11, 1997--Electric Lightwave Inc. (ELI) today filed a petition with the Utah Public Service Commission alleging that U S West Communications Inc. is violating the terms of both the Commission-ordered Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity granted ELI August of 1995; and the Interim Interconnection Agreement both parties entered into March of 1996.

The August 1995 Commission order gave ELI the right to interconnect to the essential facilities of U S West and to purchase essential services from U S West on a non-discriminatory and reasonably unbundled basis.

The petition further states, in part, that U S West agreed to use its "best efforts to cooperate and install, test and make available for use, on a mutually agreeable schedule, the services ordered" by ELI.

"Our engineers have provided detailed forecasts regarding ELI's network requirements to U S West's engineers since April of last year," ELI President and Chief Operating Officer Dave Sharkey said. "They (U S West) have not indicated to us until recently that they were unable, or unwilling, to meet our needs."

Last December, U S West told the Utah Commission that it does not consider itself obligated to spend the money necessary to meet ELI's forecasted requirements.

Further, U S West recently informed ELI that it is not capable of filling the orders for interconnection facilities ELI currently has pending.

Sharkey said ELI customers began reporting blocked calls as well as problems with complaints from those attempting incoming calls as early as last November.

"Our engineers immediately looked at our network data and saw that our trunking and switch capacity had never reached an overflow level," Sharkey said.

So they began a concentrated effort to get to the root of the problem and "everything points to a bottleneck in U S West equipment."

The petition requests that the "Commission enter an order compelling U S West to immediately allocate resources and take all measures necessary to accommodate the interconnection requirements of ELI in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area as forecasted."

"One of the reasons we have been so successful in the markets we have entered is that the incumbent telephone company is not meeting customer service expectations," Sharkey said, noting that four of the five markets ELI currently serves are in U S West territory.

"While U S West says they are `ready, willing and eager' to compete," Sharkey said, quoting U S West President Sol Trujillo in a recent press release, "their actions speak much louder than their words."

Based in Vancouver, Wash., ELI is a full service communications company which owns and operates telecommunications systems in several Western States. ELI is a subsidiary of Citizens Utilities, a diversified growth company offering telecommunications, gas, electric and water services.

CONTACT: Electric Lightwave Inc.

John Unverferth, 360/816-3217

Pager: 800/759-8888 PIN 255-5011