Minn. PUC ordered an administrative law judge to investigate 11 a...

Minn. PUC ordered an administrative law judge to investigate 11 agreements between Qwest and certain CLECs to determine whether they contained secret terms or conditions not available to other local competitors. PUC was responding to complaint filed by Minn. Dept. of Commerce Telecom Div., acting as utility consumer advocate, that alleged Qwest had violated state and federal law by offering some CLECs secret preferential terms for unbundled network elements (UNEs) and interconnection if CLECs withdrew opposition to Qwest long distance entry and other regulatory initiatives such as merger with U S West that formed current Qwest. Complaint seeks penalties of up to $200 million. CLECs allegedly involved included USLink, InfoTel Communications, McLeod USA, Covad Communications, Eschelon Telecom. Types of alleged preferences included secret extra discounts on service purchases and expedited handling of service and repair orders. Qwest has denied allegations of discriminatory “sweetheart” deals and has filed with PUC all terms of 11 agreements under investigation. Under law, Qwest is prohibited from favoring any CLECs over others, but CLECs bear no legal liability if they received special preferential treatment from incumbent. In another Minn. matter, PUC approved agreement by Qwest, Microsoft Network (MSN) and Minn. Attorney Gen. Office that settled slamming complaint against Qwest. Complaint filed Jan. 16 by coalition of Minneapolis ISPs alleged Qwest, as part of its exit from Minn. retail DSL Internet access market, migrated thousands of its DSL Internet access customers to DSL services of MSN without authorization and failed to give customers opportunity to select other providers. Qwest denied slamming charges and asserted PUC lacked jurisdiction over high-speed Internet access services. Under settlement, Qwest must notify customers it migrated to MSN that they had opportunity to choose another ISP without penalty but that if they failed to take action, their service automatically defaulted back to MSN. Qwest and MSN also must work with AG’s office to resolve problems of customers who were misbilled or double billed after switch. Settlement doesn’t require any admissions of guilt and doesn’t settle jurisdictional question.