26 Del. Admin. Code § 4006-3.0

Current through Register Vol. 28, No. 7, January 1, 2025

Section 4006-3.0 - Cost Recovery Mechanism for Interim Number Portability

Costs

3.1 The mechanisms for the recovery of interim number portability costs set forth in these Rules take into account the relative inferior quality of the methods used for portability, the interim nature of the methods, and the need to develop a competitive market for local exchange services.

3.2 For purposes of the cost recovery mechanism in these Rules, the recoverable costs for providing RCF interim number portability shall be:

(i) the Total Element Run Incremental Cost through ("TELRIC") of providing interim number portability through RCF, as determined by the Commission under Rule 4.1 or in some other proceeding;

or

(ii) (in the absence of a determination of TELRIC costs), the following proxies:

Non-Recurring Proxy Costs	Recurring Proxy Costs
$ 5.10 Service Order Charge Per Order	$2.33 Per Number Per Month for 0 to 10 Call Paths
$18.76 Installation Charge, Per Number	$0.40 Per Number Per Month for Each Additional Path.
(Not applicable if RCF is installed with an unbundled loop)

COMMENTS: The first portion of this section provides a calculation of the costs for providing RCF interim number portability, to be used both for calculating the threshold set out below and for the subsequent cost assessments against carriers, if implemented. The rules provide that if the Commission should, either under these Rules or in another proceeding (such as a generic docket or a Statement of Generally Available Terms and Conditions), determine the actual costs for providing RCF number portability, then those actual costs should be used to measure the breach of the threshold and the amounts of recoveries from the other chargeable carriers. However, until such a determination is made, the section provides proxy costs to be adopted for threshold and assessment purposes. The recurring cost proxies have been derived from cost materials submitted by Bell Atlantic-Delaware, Inc. in response to Staff data requests in Regulation Docket No. 46. The non-recurring proxy costs are based on the results of arbitration concerning service order costs in PSC Docket No. 96-204.

Threshold for Cost Assessment and Recovery

3.3 During the interim period, a local exchange carrier may not recover the costs of providing RCF interim number portability under these Rules from other telecommunications carriers until the local exchange carrier's total costs of providing interim number portability (as defined in Rules 3.2 and 3.2.1) exceed the lesser of:

3.3.1 $50,000; or

3.3.2 one tenth of one percent of the local exchange carrier's gross annual intrastate revenues.

Post-Threshold Cost Recovery

3.4 If a local exchange carrier's costs of providing RCF number portability during the interim period exceeds the amounts set forth in Rule 3.3, then the local exchange carrier may thereafter recover a cost assessment from each telecommunications carrier that has, or will, request interim number portability.

3.5 The cost assessment that the local exchange carrier may recover under rule 3.4 from the requesting telecommunications carrier shall be:

The cost (as defined in Rule 3.2) of providing RCF interim number portability to the requesting carrier

times

The requesting telecommunications carrier's market share as defined in Rule 1.5.

3.6 At the time a local exchange carrier begins to recover the cost assessment from a requesting telecommunications carrier under Rules 3.4 and 3.5, the local exchange carrier may also recover a cost assessment for RCF interim number portability from:

(1) those telecommunications carriers that provide end-user wireline access predominantly (over seventy-five percent) by means of the resale of services purchased from that local exchange carrier or

(2) those telecommunications carriers that purchase unbundled network elements from the local exchange carrier.

3.7 The cost assessment that the local exchange carrier may recover from each telecommunications carrier described in Rule 3.6 shall be:

.25 (the local exchange carrier's aggregate costs (as defined in Rule 3.2) for providing RCF interim number portability to all telecommunications carriers during the period)

times

The market share, as defined by Rule 1.5, of the telecommunications carrier providing end-user wireline access by resale or by purchase of unbundled network elements less any direct payment made under Rule 3.5 except that the amount cannot be less than zero.

COMMENTS: This portion of the section creates a cost threshold of the lesser of $50,000 or one tenth of one percent of the local exchange carrier's intrastate revenues. That threshold must be breached before the local exchange carrier may choose to impose cost assessment on other carriers for RCF interim number portability. If, during the interim period, the costs of RCF number portability to a particular local exchange carrier never exceed the threshold, the costs may not be recovered. Staff adopts the threshold formulation because the threshold amounts appear to be de minimis in relation to an exchange carrier's gross annual intrastate revenue and any attempt to collect portability costs below such level may result in administrative expenses greater than the amount of costs incurred.

If the cost threshold is breached by a local exchange carrier, that carrier may choose, but is not obligated, to recover its post-threshold RCF portability costs from other carriers, on a "going forward" basis. Staff anticipates that a carrier's decision to undertake, or forego, cost assessments may be guided by the anticipated post-threshold costs and the anticipated time remaining in the interim period. If a local exchange carrier decides to impose the cost assessments, it can do so against two categories of carriers. First, it can charge an amount of its on-going costs to the carrier requesting a ported number. That assessment is set at the proportion of the cost (actual or proxy) relative to the requesting carrier's market share. At the same time, the local exchange carrier may also assess costs against carriers reselling the local exchange carrier's retail services or purchasing unbundled network elements. The amount to be paid by carriers in this second category is based on one-quarter of the local exchange carrier's total RCF number portability costs with each such carrier paying a portion relative to its market share. Staff recognizes that resellers and purchasers of network elements do not, or may not, request number portability. However, the rules allow such carriers to be assessed for interim number portability costs in order to make the recovery mechanism "competitively neutral" between the requesting carriers, the local exchange carrier, and other carriers. In addition, in an attempt to maintain equity between requesting carriers (who may be assessed costs based upon their market share of the costs for the numbers they request) and the resellers and purchasers of elements (who may be assessed based on total portability costs), the rules provide that the assessment for the latter carriers is based only on one-quarter of the total costs.

Staff acknowledges that the recovery mechanism does not perfectly allocate the costs of RCF interim portability among all telecommunications carriers. Instead, the recovery mechanism is intended to provide a substantially fair, broader-based recovery mechanism which can be implemented without continued Commission oversight. The rules attempt to allow recovery from carriers who deal directly with the local exchange carrier.

26 Del. Admin. Code § 4006-3.0