Opinion ID: 2193374
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The District Government's Challenge to the Reclassification of E911 Service

Text: Under the 2002 Price Cap Plan, new tariffs filed by Verizon for competitive services needed no PSC approval, but were to take effect automatically on fourteen days' written notice. To give the requisite notice of the new competitive rate allowed by the Plan's reclassification of E911 service, and to update its description of that service, Verizon filed its Universal Emergency Number 911 Services Tariff with the PSC on May 16, 2002. In this tariff, Verizon announced what was effectively a twofold increase in its E911 service pricing, from sixteen cents to approximately thirty-two cents per customer line per month. The filing attracted the District Government's attention. On May 31, 2002, it lodged comments on the new tariff with the PSC, asserting, inter alia, that the E911 service should not have been classified as competitive because Verizon was the only company that then provided it. [12] Notwithstanding the District's comments, because the E911 service had been transferred to the competitive basket, the rate increase went into effect automatically after fourteen days. Some three months later, on September 11, 2002, the District formally moved the PSC to reclassify E911 as a basic business service. The PSC eventually held an evidentiary hearing on this motion on October 15, 2003. In advance of this hearing, after soliciting the parties' views, the PSC identified four issues for consideration. Three of the issues pertained to the proper classification of E911 service. [13] The fourth issue had to do with whether any decision by the PSC to return the service to the basic basket should be given retroactive effectin other words, whether the District Government still would be obligated to pay the tariff rate for E911 services provided to it by Verizon DC since its E911 tariff became effective on May 30, 2002. Order No. 13149 at 4 n. 17.