Legislature(1999 - 2000)
04/05/2000 08:09 AM House URS
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HOUSE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON UTILITY RESTRUCTURING
April 5, 2000
8:09 a.m.
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
STATEWIDE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ISSUES/OVERVIEW
HOUSE BILL NO. 169
"An Act relating to including the costs of expansion activities
and political activities in rates of electric cooperatives."
- BILL HEARING POSTPONED
TAPES [No tapes available due to recording difficulties]
CALL TO ORDER
CHAIRMAN BILL HUDSON convened the House Special Committee on
Utility Restructuring meeting at 8:09 a.m. He explained the
purpose of the meeting and the importance of keeping abreast of
telecommunications issues.
PRESENT
Committee members present were Representatives Hudson, Cowdery,
Davies, Porter, Green and Berkowitz.
SUMMARY OF INFORMATION
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR FRAN ULMER gave an update on the activities
of the Telecommunications Information Council and the Denali
Commission. She talked about Alaska's schools benefiting from
"E-Rate" to make Internet access in rural Alaska affordable.
Alaska's schools, she said, are second in the nation in being
wired for Internet access.
GREG BERBERICH, Vice President, Matanuska Telephone Association,
a full-service, member-owned telephone company, talked about the
evolution of telecommunications in recent years. He said that
serving rural customers is costly and that public policy makers
should carefully scrutinize competition issues.
MARK VASCONI, Director, Regulatory Affairs, AT&T Alascom (largest
long-distance carrier in Alaska), explained that his company is a
carrier of last resort; it operates more than 200 earth stations
in Alaska, a microwave network and the Aurora II satellite. He
said AT&T Alascom continues to invest in digital equipment that
connects to global networks, and will replace Aurora II with
Aurora III at a cost of $45 million. He described other
investments, the costs of doing business in Alaska, and concerns
about access rates. He asked the Regulatory Commission of Alaska
to work toward driving prices to cost. He answered several
questions from committee members.
BILL BEHNKE, Senior Vice President -Marketing, General
Communications, Inc., talked about access cost problems; the
RCA's being challenged to manage new paradigm shift to "active,
vibrant market" in the industry; the difficulty in hiring trained
Alaskans; the need for more time to train users; and other issues
relating to developing competitive markets. He also answered
questions from committee members.
MARY ANN PEASE, Vice President - External Relations, Alaska
Communications Systems (ACS), provided a Power Point presentation
about ACS's expansion and advanced services development. She
answered questions from committee members.
MARC FARMER, Western Regional Business Manager, National Rural
Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), explained that NRTC
provides products and services to more than 1,000 rural electric
and telephone utilities; 20 members are in Alaska. NRTC is
intent upon helping to bring more bandwidth to rural Alaska
through support of new federal legislation and testing of new
satellite services.
DAVE LEWIS, Operations and Maintenance manager, Alaska Fiber
Star, concurred with most points presented by other speakers and
said he was pleased to hear various industry viewpoints. He
answered questions from committee members.
JACK RHYNER, President and General Manager, TelAlaska, Inc.,
stressed the importance of the Universal Service Fund to rural
Alaskans. He also expressed some concerns about the RCA's
handling of a certain docket as it relates to separation of RCA
staff. He answered questions from the committee.
CHAIR HUDSON asked RCA chair Nanette Thompson, who was
participating by teleconference, to send a response to the
committee regarding the concerns expressed by Mr. Rhymer.
[There being no time left, Karen Morgan, Acting Director of the
Information Technology group, Department of Administration, did
not make her scheduled presentation.]
COMMITTEE ACTION
The committee took no action.
ADJOURNMENT
CHAIRMAN HUDSON adjourned the House Special Committee on Utility
Restructuring meeting at 9:54 a.m.
NOTE:
There are no tapes for this meeting due to recording
difficulties. However, handwritten log notes were taken; those
are available from the Legislative Reference Library, 129 6th
Street, Suite 102, Juneau, Alaska 99801, (907) 465-3808.
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