Opinion ID: 1151164
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the indefinitely postponed hearing on intralata competition

Text: MCI initially argues that it has been deprived of liberty or property without due process of law in violation of the constitutions of the United States and Oklahoma by the Commission's failure to conduct a timely and appropriate hearing on its December, 1983, application for certification to provide intrastate intraLATA telephone service within Oklahoma. The Corporation Commission brief claims that this argument is merely an attempt to bootstrap a stale appeal to a timely one. The brief noted that the Commission issued a final order in MCI's certification case, Cause No. 28713, sustaining Southwestern Bell's motion to sever and defer the issue of intrastate intraLATA competition. The Commission's brief argues that MCI cannot now appeal this decision to this Court. MCI answers that such a decision is not a final decision. We have examined the notice of inquiry of June 24, 1985, Cause No. 29688, which set the hearing; and the June 27, 1985, hearing which recognized the parties, set the procedures for testimony and the issues to be heard. The notice and the June 27 hearing reveals that granting MCI a hearing on intraLATA competition was not one of the issues. Although the Corporation Commission in its order mentions that consideration of intraLATA competition was not appropriate at this time, such an issue was clearly collateral to this hearing. If MCI were granted the authority by the Corporation Commission to compete with the local exchange carriers within a LATA, such authority would dispose of the issue of blocking or compensating. However, the issues in this hearing involved the interexchange carriers, of which MCI is one, and companies which had applied to carry telephone calls between LATAs. To decide if MCI is entitled to an immediate hearing because there has been a lengthy delay from the time of its application would be premature as the issues and the evidence have not been fully developed. [3]