Reform of Filing Requirements and Carrier Classifications; Anchorage Telephone Utility, Petition for Withdrawal of Cost Allocation Manual

In this Report and Order (Order), the Commission revised the rules governing filing requirements for cost allocation manuals (CAMs) and Automated Reporting Management Information System (ARMIS) reports so that these rules are in accord with the 1996 Act. Specifically, the Order: provides for a uniform filing date of April 1 for all ARMIS reports; reduces the 60-day notice period for a carrier to make changes to its CAM to 15 days; makes permanent our interim rules for measuring inflation, used to adjust the threshold revenue values in our rules; permits carriers to file the interstate carrier quarterly report on an annual basis; and eliminates the supplemental reporting requirement. This Order also addresses a Motion for Reconsideration filed by Anchorage Telephone Utility (ATU). On June 22, 1995, ATU filed a petition seeking a declaratory ruling that it is not required to file ARMIS reports or, in the alternative, a waiver of these filing requirements or rulemaking to amend the Commission's filing requirements. In its Petition for Reconsideration, ATU argues that the Commission should require only incumbent local exchange carriers with more than 2% of the nation's access lines to comply with the CAM and ARMIS filing requirements. In this Order, the Commission denies ATU's Petition for Reconsideration and retains the $107 million annual revenue threshold (adjusted annually for inflation, and since raised to $109 million) indicating which incumbent local exchange carriers must comply with the Commission's CAM and ARMIS reporting and filing requirements. However, because ATU sufficiently demonstrated that its annual revenues may soon decrease to a level below the filing and reporting threshold, the Commission granted ATU a limited two-year waiver of the ARMIS reporting requirements.