R746-356-8. Equal Access Implementation Cost Recovery Procedure

A. Recovery of Waived PIC Charges -- The LEC shall bill each equal access telecommunications carrier for the presubscription PIC charges waived by R746-356-7(C) or (D).

B. Recovery of Expenses -- Any recovery of recurring and one-time expenses incurred for the provision of intraLATA equal access shall be through a separate, temporary equal access recovery charge (EARC) element in a LEC's switched access and toll tariffs or price lists. These expenses may include:

1. the incremental additional expenses related directly to the provision of hardware and software investments not required to upgrade the switching capabilities of each central office absent the provision of the intraLATA equal access;

2. expenses for the incremental additional training of customer contact personnel in the additional processing of intraLATA presubscription requests;

3. expenses related directly to the preparation, reproduction and mailing of the customer educational materials and equal access notifications;

4. expenses related directly to the preparation, reproduction and filings of the intraLATA equal access tariffs or price lists;

5. expenses for the Utah portion of the incremental additional software programming of the billing programs that would not be required absent the Utah intraLATA equal access; and

6. expenses for the Utah portion of the incremental additional software programming of the business office support systems that would not be required absent the Utah intraLATA equal access.

C. Recovery Timing -- Expenses for intraLATA equal access implementation developed from items shown in R746-356-8(B)shall be subject to approval by the Commission. The EARC shall be assessed to estimated monthly intraLATA originating switched access minutes and monthly originating LEC toll minutes of use, over a three-year period for Qwest Corporation, and over a two-year period for all other LECs.

D. True-Up --

1. For each applicable year, the EARC will be trued-up and changed based on the actual incurred expenses, the actual originating intraLATA switched access minutes billed to each PIC, and the intraLATA toll minutes billed by the LEC.

2. The true-ups shall result in an annual payment by the LEC to each participating equal access carrier for excess payments, or an annual bill from the LEC to each participating equal access carrier for any under-payments.

3. The true-ups should result in an annual inter-company payment process based on the proportional intraLATA switched access minutes previously billed to each carrier and the intraLATA toll minutes billed by the LEC.

4. The LEC and an equal access carrier may agree to alternative compensation arrangements in lieu of an annual payment.