ILLINOIS REMEDY PLAN AS MINIMUM STANDARD. Staff maintains that Ameritech has failed to adequately demonstrate that the various components of the 11-State Plan are consistent with the public interest, particularly since Section 252(e)(3) allows state commissions to enforce intrastate telecommunications service quality standards. Staff contends that the standards in the Illinois Remedy Plan represent state adopted minimum intrastate telecommunications service quality standards which must be met, or exceeded, in any alternative remedy plan in order for such a plan to be consistent with the public interest in Illinois. Ameritech refutes Staff’s assertion that subsection (e)(3) may be used to justify the rejection of the 11-State Plan. In arguing its position, Staff asserts that the public interest at stake is the public’s interest in, and indeed right to, the level or quality, of service that the Commission has ordered carriers in Illinois to provide. Staff explains that wholesale service quality in Illinois is protected by the 150 performance measurements approved by the Commission in the Remedy Plan Order and enforced through the remedy payments set forth in the Illinois Remedy Plan. Moreover, Staff avers that the only plan thoroughly analyzed and approved by the Commission at this time is the Illinois Remedy Plan. Accordingly, Staff considers the Illinois Remedy Plan to be a floor for wholesale performance for Ameritech—nothing more or less than a mechanism put in place to “requir[e] compliance with intrastate telecommunications service quality standards[,]” (47 USC 252(e)(3)), in this case, the service quality standards applicable to services provisioned to wholesale customers. Staff states that the purpose of such a requirement is, of course, to make certain that CLECs are not put at a competitive disadvantage due to poor wholesale service quality. Staff contends further that federal courts (U.S. West x. Xxx, 57 X. Xxxx. 2d 1112 (D.Colo. 1999) and X.X. Xxxx x. Xxxxxx, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22042 (X.Xxxx. 1999)) recognize a state’s right to impose service quality standards, including intercarrier service quality standards. Staff also notes that Illinois statutes (Sections 13-514 and 13-712 of the Act) charge the Commission with taking steps to assure wholesale service quality. Clearly, Staff argues, the Illinois Remedy Plan represents intrastate telecommunications service quality standards.
