The following excerpt is from the Final Report and Recommendation of the Pennsylvania Universal Telephone Service Task Force, tentatively approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission on October 9, 1997. This excerpt is from the Subcommittee on Schools and Libraries report, Issue E.

Recommendations

1. The Pennsylvania PUC should set forth standards to govern the definition of "similarly situated non-residential customers for similarly situated services" for purposes of evaluating the lowest corresponding price. Such standards should include: (a) type of service; (b) physical proximity of school/library and other customers; (c) number of connections for school/library and other customers; (d) volume of usage for school/library and other customers. No hard and fast rule can be adopted that will govern all situations, but the identification of various criteria may assist the customers and providers in their negotiations. The Pennsylvania PUC should develop the standard after providing interested parties opportunity for comment.

2. The Pennsylvania PUC should require that carriers offer prices to schools and libraries which are being offered via individual case basis contracts to similarly situated non-residential customers for similarly situated services. Procedures should be implemented to preserve the confidentiality of competitively sensitive information relating to such contracts.

3. The Pennsylvania PUC should continue to adhere to its historic practice of requiring prices for intrastate services to be set no lower than incremental cost. The PUC should reject the FCC's limitation on the prices available to consortia relating to the provision of intrastate services.