Opinion ID: 793196
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Plant Mix Determination

Text: 26 Qwest also challenges MPUC's plant mix determinations. Plant mix refers to the ratios of different categories of telephone lines. Aerial lines are strung between telephone poles, while buried and underground lines are located below ground. Buried lines are placed in a trench and covered with earth. Underground lines are placed in a buried conduit that is accessible by manholes. The ALJ and MPUC adopted plant mix ratios recommended by the Department of Commerce, rejecting ratios suggested by Qwest and the CLECs in competing models. The ALJ concluded that the CLEC model included too high a percentage of aerial plant, given that communities were moving away from aerial plant due to aesthetic concerns, while the Qwest model overstated the amount of underground plant. Therefore, the ALJ adopted the Department's recommendation that increased buried plant and reduced investment in underground and aerial plant. Qwest is challenging the reduction in underground lines, arguing that MPUC improperly relied upon the unsupported testimony of the Department's expert. 27 In a prior proceeding, MPUC had adopted the Department's conclusion that 14.5% of plant was underground. Based upon the testimony of the Department's expert, the ALJ concluded that this percentage was no longer accurate and established a new weighted average of 5.8% underground plant. The Department's expert reached this conclusion in part by relying upon a survey conducted for a Department of Commerce study for a different proceeding which reflected that telecommunications companies were installing very little aerial or underground plant. Qwest argues that MPUC improperly relied upon the unsupported testimony of the Department's expert because this survey was not included in the record and the expert failed to explain his methodology. 28 However, the survey was only part of the expert's rationale. The Department's expert explained to the ALJ that the most accurate forward-looking estimates of plant mix have changed since he made his initial calculation of 14.5% underground plant. He explained that this prior estimate improperly relied upon carriers' actual use of plant in embedded networks and that there would be a significant difference between these numbers and what a telecommunications company would chose when starting from scratch. As a result, he used his prior estimates as a benchmark, which he adjusted to account for what an efficient carrier deploying a forward-looking network would do today. With that in mind, the Department's expert explained that buried plant would be the preferred placement method in a forward-looking network because it is less expensive to place than underground plant and easier to maintain and more accepted by communities than aerial plant. 7 29 Qwest again objects to the ALJ's rejection of its proposal, which was based upon Qwest's embedded numbers. Qwest's embedded numbers are not dispositive. See 47 C.F.R. § 51.505(d)(1). While Qwest may actually employ a much higher percentage of underground plant than the adopted proposal, MPUC could conclude that a forward-looking network would employ a smaller percentage of underground plant. As discussed above, MPUC was engaged in time-sensitive decision making. After MPUC determined that neither the Qwest nor the CLEC models was appropriate to determine plant mix, it was not arbitrary and capricious in choosing to adopt a middle ground proposed by the Department of Commerce. See GTE S., Inc., 199 F.3d at 748.