Ind. Utility Regulation Commission (IURC) renewed Ameritech price...

will be enforced. Pac Bell had proposed sliding-scale point system for assessing penalties, but IURC said it rejected that idea because it would have meant Pac Bell wouldn’t face maximum $30 million annual penalty unless network suffered widespread catastrophic failure. Instead, IURC said Pac Bell must be in 100% compliance with 8 specific quality standards to avoid penalty. Service performance will be reviewed quarterly. In any area where Ameritech is out of compliance, company will be given 90 days to fix problem before any fine is imposed. Size of fine will be at IURC discretion, but maximum total in any year remains at $30 million. Ameritech must invest more than $700 million to improve network and expand availability of high-speed Internet access services, IURC said. It specified that any infrastructure projects begun but not finished when extension expired in Dec. 2003 must be completed regardless of what happens after. IURC also added provision returning Ameritech to rate-of-return regulation in Jan. 2004 unless another alternative regulation plan is approved before then. Plan puts business and residential services under nonindexed caps, with series of reductions scheduled over next 3 years totaling $62 million for residential service and $106 million for business. Rates are deregulated for competitive and nonbasic services, which include most optional and discretionary services.