Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission
302 West Washington Street, Room 306
Indianapolis Indiana 46204
317.232.2297 office
317.233.1982 fax
www.state.in.gov/iurc
February 27, 2002
The Indiana Utility
Regulatory Commission took steps attempting to increase telephone competition
in Indiana today,
by approving pricing for some unbundled
network elements (UNEs).
In Cause No.
40618-S1, the Commissioners approved a settlement agreement submitted by
Sprint, Verizon and Time Warner Telecom and the Office of the Indiana Utility
Consumer Counselor which sets the
parameters for the collocation of competitive local telephone companies at
Verizon facilities.
Collocation
occurs when a CLEC occupies space and locates equipment in an Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier’s (ILECs )
Central office to provide services to its customers and interconnects with the
ILEC.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 entitles competitive local exchange
carriers (CLECs) to lease all of the
pieces of Verizon’s network needed for competition or just a part of Verizon’s local network, giving the
competitors access to the same network elements that Verizon uses to serve its
own retail customers.
Since 1998 the FCC
has issued a number of orders on what new elements and services ILECs must
offer to CLECs. To set the rates for these new elements and services, the IURC
initiated Cause No. 40618-S1. Given the
number of elements and services that needed new rates, the parties agreed to
set the rates in phases. The
collocation issue was addressed in the first phase.
On May 7, 1998, in
Cause No. 40618, the IURC issued an Order setting the rates for many elements
of the services Verizon leases to competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs).
The IURC denied Verizon’s request to increase the cost of capital, which
was set in 40618
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