IT&E requests re-hearing on GTA application

IT&E has asked the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission to order a re-hearing on the application process of its potential competitor, Guam-based GTA Services LLC, but the decision was deferred yesterday by commissioner Viola Alepuyo pending the commission’s action on a separate IT&E appeal versus GTA’s application.

Early this month, the commission initiated an inquiry to determine whether IT&E’s rural exemption should be terminated and it authorized hearing examiner Harry Boertzel to oversee the inquiry and issue findings and recommendations.

Among these inquiries is whether GTA failed to make a bona fide request for interconnection services, as requested by IT&E.

Alepuyo was supposed to come out with a decision but she opted to delay this until next week, pending the report of CPUC legal counsel Anthony Long who was asked to provide a legal opinion.

IT&E’s request for a re-hearing, she said, is entirely separate from the bona fide request issue for interconnection services. However, Alepuyo believes that the two issues are interrelated and a decision on either matter will impact the another. She said IT&E raised some legal issues in its request for re-hearing. She promised to come out with a written order within seven days.

During a Nov. 19 meeting, IT&E legal counsels Victor Torres and Steven Carrara pleaded with the commission to put off making a decision as it will render moot all their other appeals and concerns regarding GTA’s application.

Yesterday, Carrara told Saipan Tribune that his client would like to present some arguments as it seeks a re-hearing process for GTA’s application. He refused to disclose these arguments pending the commission’s decision on its appeals.

IT&E earlier filed a case against the commission in court for approving GTA’s application. Carrara described this case as a “hold-over” pending the commission’s decision on the appeals they presented. “That case still stands but it’s just stayed until we resolve everything here [at the commission level],” said Carrara.

According to IT&E, GTA’s request was not bona fide because when made on Aug. 29, 2011, GTA did not yet possess the authority to provide intrastate service in the CNMI. It was only late last month when the commission approved a certificate of public convenience and necessity to GTA, authorizing the company to provide competitive local exchange services within the Commonwealth. IT&E asserted that GTA needed this certification before its request could be considered bona fide.

IT&E, in its appeal, said that until GTA possesses the certification, it is not authorized and cannot provide telephone exchange or exchange access service in the CNMI.