The Alaska Supreme Court reversed and remanded an Alaska Regulato...
The Alaska Supreme Court reversed and remanded an Alaska Regulatory Commission (ARC) decision to eliminate the rural competition exemption for Alaska Communications Systems (ACS) in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau. The top state court (Case 5762) said the ARC incorrectly…
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placed the burden of proof on ACS to show a need to keep the exemption, rather than on General Communications Inc. (GCI), a competitor that sought removal of the exemption. The case had its roots in a 1997 decision by the ARC’s predecessor agency, the Alaska PUC, to keep ACS’s rural exemption. GCI appealed and the case wound its way through the state courts including a 1999 remand that ended in ACS’s losing its rural exemption. When the PUC was terminated and replaced by the ARC, ACS asked the new agency to review its predecessor’s decision. The ARC in 1999 reaffirmed termination of ACS’s rural exemption, but ACS appealed, losing in the lower state courts. The state Supreme Court cited federal court rulings that removed the burden of proof from the incumbent. The court said the ARC should reconsider its ruling, with the burden of proof on GCI to show that ending ACS’ rural exemption wouldn’t impose undue economic burdens on the carrier, wouldn’t create serous technical problems and wouldn’t impair universal service. The court said the ARC was free to compile a new record and wasn’t bound by the record of the 1999 case.