Alright. In that case, we're going to get started. Let's go on the record. Good morning. This is the time set for the public comment and evidentiary hearing in the matter of the application of MMR Fiber Solutions LLC for approval of a certificate of convenience and necessity to provide intrastate telecommunication services in Arizona. This is docket number TDash21374ADash25Dash0237.
My name is Donna Sansone, and I am the administrative law judge assigned to preside over this matter. Start by, excuse me, taking appearances of the parties beginning with the company. I'm sorry. I can't hear that, judge. It seems the microphones were turned off. I think I turned them on now. Nope. How about now? Oh, there we go. There we go. Good morning, your honor. Eli Sanchezki with the law firm Osborne Maladon on behalf of the applicant MMR Fiber Solutions LLC. And with me online is miss Laura Lee Hunt, general manager for MMR Fiber Solutions LLC. Thank you, mister Ankorski. And for staff?
Good morning, your honor. Bridget Humphrey, appearing on behalf of staff. And with me at council table our staff witness, Taylor Schell and Kendria Allen. Thank you. Alright. In that case, let's move to procedural items. Are there any procedural items or issues that we need to address before we move to public comment, miss Rankarski? Nothing from the company, your honor. Miss Humphreys? Nothing from staff. In that case, we will move on to public comment. This is the time for any member of the public present to provide comments in this matter. Are there any members of the public who would like to provide comment today regarding
MMR fibers application? Seeing none in the hearing room, and there do not appear to be any call in users. Let the record reflect that no one has indicated a desire to speak. We'll move into opening statements. Mister Ancarski, would the company like to make an opening statement at this time? Thank you, your honor. We'll waive opening statements at this time. And miss Humphreys for staff? As will staff. Alright. In that case, let's move into the presentation of witnesses and evidence. Mister Ankarski, are you ready to call your first witness? Yes. We are. And who will that be? Yes. Your honor,
MMR Fiber calls miss Loralee Hunt as our witness. Alright. Miss Hunt, if you could, raise your right hand, our court reporter will swear you in. And do you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. I do. Thank you. Alright. Good morning, miss Hunt. Can you please state your name, employer, and business address for the record, please? Sure. My name is Laura Lee Hunt. MMR Fiber Solutions. 3610 North 44th Street, Phoenix, Arizona. What is your title and role with MMR Fiber Solutions? I am the general manager.
Are you authorized to testify here today on behalf of MMR Fiber? Yes. And could you briefly describe your role and involvement with MMR Fiber? Yes. All divisions of our organization report up to me, including development, construction, engineering, network operations, marketing, and customer service and relations. Can you please briefly describe the products or services that MMR Fiber will be providing in Arizona and throughout the rest of the country? Sure. We will be providing private line telecommunication services, essentially on a wholesale basis, wholesale telecom,
dark fiber, which will include wavelength point to point service, throughout Arizona. Right. And are you familiar with the application for a CCNN that MMR fiber filed in this matter? Yes. Do you have in front of you today what is marked as exhibit a one, which is a copy of the application? Yes. Do you have any corrections or revisions you would like to make to exhibit a one? No. Are you adopting exhibit a one as your primary testimony today? Yes. Your honor, I'd move for admission of exhibit a one. Any objection from staff? No objection. With no objection, exhibit a one is hereby admitted.
Miss Hunt, on 02/24/2026, MMR Fiber filed a copy of his responses to staff's first aid request, which was previously submitted to commission staff. Is that correct? Yes. Is exhibit a two a copy of that filing? Yes. Do you have any corrections or revisions you would like to make to exhibit a two? No. Alright. Your honor, I'd move for admission of exhibit a a two. Any objection from staff? No objection. No objection. Exhibit a two is hereby admitted. Have you had a chance to review the staff report marked as exhibit s one in this matter? Yes. And have you reviewed the recommendations in that staff report?
Yes. Does m m I MMR Fiber agree to abide by all other recommendations in the staff report? Yes. Right. On 12/12/2025, MMR Fiber filed a request for waiver of the contract filing requirement found in Arizona Administrative Code r 14 dash two dash one one one five c three. Is it still MMR Fiber's request to waive that rule as confirmed by the staff report? Yes. And does the company have any objections to producing contracts at the request of commission staff pursuant to that rule? No. And is a copy of that waiver request marked as exhibit a three?
Yes. And is exhibit a three a true and accurate copy of the waiver request? Yes. It is. Your honor, I'd move for admission of exhibit a three. Any objection from staff? Objection. With no objection, exhibit a three is hereby admitted. Finally, pursuant to the procedural order dated 03/19/2026, MMR Fiber was required to publish the notice of hearing in the newspaper of general circulation. Did MMR Fiber provide such notice? Yes. And what date was notice published? 04/09/2026. And do you have in front of you today what is marked as exhibit A four, which is copy of the notice of filing the affidavit of publication?
I do. Does this document confirm that MMR Fiber published the notice of hearing in the Arizona Business Gazette on 04/09/2026? Yes. And do you have any corrections or revisions you would like to make to exhibit eight a four? No. Your honor, I move for admission of exhibit a four. Any objection from staff? No objection. With no objection, I hereby admit exhibit a four. Alright, your honor. I don't have any additional questions for miss Hunt. She's available for cross examination. You. Miss Humphreys, do you have any questions for this witness? Just a couple, your honor.
Good morning, miss Hunt. Good morning. You the MMR does have a, a physical location in Arizona. Correct? Yes. We do. And how will, how will it will MMR be dealing with customer service issues? Will there be staff, full time in Arizona to address that? Or can you give us a little background on that? Sure. We we we have a a staff of about 20 individuals that will run our network operations. We're gonna going to operate an active call center, so they will be routed to,
you know, specific and real people is our goal to to provide the best customer service that we can. And I in the staff report in this case, it was noted that you your company does not have any, has not been, granted a CCNN in any other states. Is that still the case? That is correct. Do you have any plans on expanding into other states at this point? We are expanding into New Mexico primarily with dark fiber and not point to point wholesale, as those carriers have have already approached us here in Arizona.
And so we have not applied in any other state at this time because we don't meet the requirements. Thank you. I was just curious about that. Those are the only Thank you. Those are the only questions I have, your honor. Thanks. Alright. Thank you, miss Humphreys. I do have, a couple questions, and both of your attorneys actually covered some of them. So I apologize if there's any, repetition. Miss Hunt, I'm going to begin my questioning by seeking some clarification on different things that are mentioned throughout the company's exhibits and the staff report. To start, in the application,
responses to staff data requests and the staff report, MMR Fiber is asked various questions related to its parent company, MMR Group Incorporated. Is MMR Group Incorporated in Arizona or in another jurisdiction? MMR Group, our corporate headquarters is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Alright. And is that where they were initially incorporated in the state of Louisiana? I believe so. I'm yes, ma'am. I believe that is correct. Do you happen to know what year MMR Group was incorporated?
I do not know, but can certainly supplement my testimony after the hearing to provide that information. Okay. And we can talk about that later, towards, the end of the hearing. Do you happen to know what date MMR Group was first authorized to conduct business in Arizona or if they are authorized to conduct business in Arizona? Yes. I can also find that information out. We we are authorized to conduct business in Arizona and as is MMR Fiber Solutions, which we provided exhibits to
the staff on on that or certificate of, you know, compliance, basically. Perfect. Thank you so much. And just generally, what type of company is MMR Group? What business services do they provide? We do primarily electrical and instrumentation work. We we have a broad 10,000 employees, essentially, 8,000 technical staff. We do own and operate power generation assets, and this is sort of the next step in our in MMR's business development plan
is to, construct. We are construction based, so to construct and operate a fiber network. Alright. Thank you. Then in the application and in its responses to staff data requests, there is some discussion about an affiliate of MMR fiber, Southwestern Power two LLC. Just generally, what type of company is Southwestern Power? What business services do they provide? Yeah. Southwestern Power Group is an independent power development group that's also a wholly owned subsidiary
of MMR Group, and it primarily develops power generation assets and transmission assets. Alright. Thank you. And then, I just wanna confirm my understanding of the marketing materials provided in attachment, a one to the application. So attachment a one to exhibit a one. From what I can tell, the materials refer to a plan, refer to a plan to fill a fiber gap and provides a map of MMR fibers, what I believe is their intended fiber route that goes across the Southwestern part of
the state of Arizona and then continues on through various parts of the state of Mexico New Mexico. Is my understanding of what these materials are trying to demonstrate, is that correct, essentially, what these are showing? Yes. Yes. You're right. Alright. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to questions related to the company's technical and managerial capabilities to provide the proposed services. Looking at the first page page of the staff report, which is proposed exhibit s one, staff notes that in its application, MMR states that its network operations center is operated by 20 full times 20 full
time employees. I just wanna clarify, is this network operation center, is it going to be located in the Phoenix, office that Yeah. MMR Group owns? Yes, your honor. Okay. Yeah. Alright. And then, what will the hours of operation be for this network operation center? And so there will be a a we set up a call line, an 800 call line that will ring to the designated individual's phone twenty four hours a day. But during the day, we'll have a normal business operations eight to five with with various people available.
Alright. Thank you. Then further down on that same page, staff notes that quote MMR further states that its operational plan for Arizona includes employee technicians located along its fiber route that will be on call and available twenty four hours per day to respond to any network event. Does MMR Fiber have an estimate of approximately how many employee technicians they plan to, hire along that fiber route? We're positioning three. Alright. And then how does MMR Fiber intend to determine the location of where these technicians
will be stationed or located out of? In the larger commercial areas, for example, Tucson, And and then, obviously, when we go east to west, more rural location there. And it will be largely dependent on final where they live. Right now, they're roaming and following construction. And our our intent is where do we get the wholesale telecom business, what areas are we providing point to point service to, and so that it will enhance our customer relations and reliability in the issues if
something should come up. Alright. Thank you. And then there's a general mention of the employees being on call and available twenty four hours a day. How will they be contacted when their services are needed? So we we established the one the dedicated 1888 line as you see in the staff report, and that automatically brings through to the on call technician's phone. Right. Perfect. Thank you so much. And then I believe that staff's attorney already asked about, the intention for a customer call center.
I just wanna confirm that you plan or that the company plans to have that call center in house. They're not seeking to outsource, like, to a third party company. Is that correct? That is absolutely correct because we're as it further states on page two of the staff report, you know, we'll collect sophisticated customers, and and so we we wanna provide, you know, real time, real people contact information and relationships. Alright. Thank you. Moving on to questions related to the company's proposed rates and charges.
MMR Fiber makes it clear that they intend to utilize individual case basis or ICB contracts with its customers. I just wanna confirm if the company's application is granted, does the company intend to keep the maximum rate charged in its ICB contracts at or below the maximum rate of its commission approved tariff? We do, dear. Your honor. Alright. That is my final question. Thank you so much, miss Hunt. Mister Ankarski, any redirect? No additional questions. You were very thorough. Miss Humphreys, any No additional questions.
Thank you. Mister or miss Hunt, thank you so much for your testimony. Mister Ankarsky, does the company have any additional witnesses? No additional witnesses, your honor. Alright. In that case, let's move over to staff. Staff calls Taylor Shell. Alright. And, Michelle, you're welcome to come up here if you'd like to witness stand. And then whenever you are ready, I will have our court reporter swear you in. Usually, he's up there, but it looks like we don't have him on screen. So I'll just have him vocalize it. Adam, whenever you're ready. Oh, would you raise your right hand, please?
Do you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Thank you. Go ahead, miss Humphreys. Thank you, your honor. Good morning, Michelle. Would you please state your name and your business address for the record? Hi. Good morning. My name is Taylor Shell, and my business address is the Arizona Corporation Commission at 1200 West Washington Street, Phoenix, Arizona. And you are employed by the Corporation Commission. Is that correct? Correct. And what is your employment title? I am a public utility analyst two.
As part of your duties as a public utilities analyst two, were you assigned to evaluate the application of MMR fiber in this case? Yes. I was. And you should have in front of you what's been marked for identification purposes as exhibit s one. Do you have that? Yes. And can you tell us what that document is? It's the prepared staff report. Was that prepared by you or at your direction? I prepared it. Yes. And do you have any changes or corrections to make to that test that that, staff memorandum? No. Is the information contained in that document true and correct to the best of your
knowledge? Yes. To my knowledge. And are you adopting that document, your your your staff report, as part of your sworn testimony here today? Yes. Your honor, we would move for the admission of exhibit s one. Any objections from the company? No objections, your honor. With no objections, exhibit s one is hereby admitted. As part of your analysis, did you evaluate the company's technical capacity to provide the requested services? Yes. And it's my understanding from your report that, collectively, the employees, of MMR are have about a hundred years of telecom experience amongst them.
Correct? Correct. And what can did you draw a conclusion about whether the company did have the technical capacity to provide the services in question? Yes. I believe they provide they have the technical ability to provide the services. Did you also review the or evaluate the company's financial capability to provide the services in question? Yes. Did that review include a, review of the company's, financial statements for the last several years as well? Yes. And what did you determine whether the company with regard to the company's ability to,
financial ability to serve its customers and provide the services. Based on the information, the company has the financial, capability to provide the services. Will most of that, be coming from the the parent company? Yes, to my knowledge. And I'll try and eliminate what's already been asked on this as well. The company asked to waive the requirement, which requires financial which requires applicants to file contracts with the commission. You've heard the company witness testify about that this morning. Correct? Correct. And is staff recommending that a waiver be granted?
Yes. Staff is recommending, that that waiver be granted given that, upon request, they provide to the commission any ICVs. Did staff also evaluate whether the company's services should be, deemed competitive or not? Yes. And what determination did staff make in that regard? Staff determined that they can be classified competitive. Staff believe that this company is a bit and proper entity to provide the services that requested permission? And does staff also believe that the granting that of the CCNN will be in the public interest in this case?
That does believe. Yes. You've heard the testimony again this morning of miss Hunt with regard to staff's recommendations. Correct? Correct. And is staff still making the same recommendations as were contained in your written staff report? Correct. Thank you, your honor. Those are the only questions I have. Thank you so much. Miss, miss Shell is available for cross. Switching my names this morning. Mister Ankarski, do you have any cross for this witness? No questions, your honor. Just thank you for your time. Michelle, I do have a couple of questions. I'm gonna begin again with just some clarifying questions.
So in the company's responses to staff data requests, which has been marked as exhibit a two, Specifically, in response to staff data request 1.5, MMR fiber says, quote, applicant understands the commission does not regulate dark fiber. Therefore, any dark fiber services, which will be provided pursuant to an individual case basis or ICB contracts are not included with this proposed tariff. First, to confirm, is MMR fiber correct that the commission does not regulate dark fiber? Yes. They are correct. And then,
do you know why dark fiber is outside of the commission's telecommunications regulatory authority? My assumption is that because, dark fiber is not lit and therefore isn't technically transmitting any information, but I just wanted to confirm my understanding. To the best of my knowledge, that sounds correct, but I also believe, like, it's written in the rules that dark fiber, since like you said, it is not lit, it's not as regulated. Alright. Thank you so much. Now moving on to questions related to MMR Fiber's technical and managerial capabilities to provide
the proposed services. I know miss Humphrey already asked you, about their technical. But I I did want to dive into that a little bit. So on pages one and two of the staff report, staff generally describes what MMR Fiber's business plan is, what services they will provide, and how the company plans to provide those services. Staff ultimately concludes that MMR fiber has the technical capability to provide the proposed services. However, staff doesn't exactly provide specifics on how or why the company's plan to provide these
services demonstrates that technical capability. So can you provide me with some clarity on how staff came to this conclusion about the company's technical capability? For example, did staff find that the company is following a business model that they have, seen other companies successfully deploy for its private line and wholesale infrastructure and services, or how exactly, does MMR Fiber's plans demonstrate their technical capability to provide the proposed services? So based off of their technical capability technical capabilities,
staff believe based off the hundred years of experience between the six main personnel that they listed in their application showed good knowledge and their tariff also. I'm not going to it mirrors almost other, tariffs that we see. So based off that information and, for their plans that they put for like, with their knock and sorry. One second. Yes. Given that they already have plans on their route and, that they already have, employees, it proves that they have technical capabilities to provide the services.
Alright. Thank you so much. And then in the staff report, staff does not directly confirm that MMR Fiber possesses the managerial capabilities to provide the proposed services. Can you tell me what staff's conclusion was with respect to MMR Fiber's managerial capabilities. Yes. Staff, based off what they provided in the application on the six key personnel and their managerial, I believe that they do have the ability. Alright. And aside from the years of experience of the company's key management team that you're referring to, are there any other factors that staff considered in coming to the conclusion about managerial
capability? Within those hundred years, based off what, I'm blanking on the exact, job titles they have, but based off their what they provided on past jobs, I believe that it shows that they have them in a managerial. It's great. Thank you so much. I also wanna confirm that staff is not seeking a perform a performance bond from the company in this case. Is that correct? Correct. Alright. Thank you. Now turning to staff's review of complaint information, staff provides details of the review of complaint information specific to the applicant MMR Fiber.
Did staff also conduct any review or research of complaint information specific to MMR, fiber's parent company, MMR Group Incorporated? Yes. I do believe, staff asked based off, that the officers and directors are both connected with them that, yes, they're parent company as well. And, did staff, through that kind of investigation, that questioning, did they find any history of complaints or any, complaint issues in the parent company? No. We found no issues with the parent company nor the proposed company.
Alright. Thank you so much. Then finally, looking at page eight of the staff report where staff makes its recommendations related to MMR Fiber's petition to have its proposed services classified as competitive. In that paragraph, staff writes about how MMR Fiber, quote, will have to convince customers to purchase its services, and the applicant has no ability to adversely affect the local exchange access or inter exchange service markets. Therefore, the applicant currently has no market power in the local exchange access or inter exchange
service markets where alternative providers of telecommunication services exist. However, MMR fiber is not seeking commission authority to provide local exchange access or inter exchange services in Arizona as far as I'm aware. So I just wanted to clarify. Was this just a typo with staff actually concluding these same things about the company's market power in the private line and wholesale telecommunications market, or am I, misunderstanding staff's intention, in that analysis? So, yes, they're not. I wouldn't say necessarily it's a typo,
but, just like referencing other other companies in the same type of service, like, within all of those, they don't have any, like, specific, like, monopoly over anything. So it's just more broad mentioning everything. Okay. That that helps. Thank you so much. I believe those are all of my questions. Thank you, Michelle. Miss Humphrey, any any redirect? No redirect, your honor. Thank you. Any final cross from the company? No additional questions, your honor. Well, thank you, Michelle. That concludes your testimony. You can go ahead and step down. Thank you, your honor.
Miss Humphrey, does staff have any additional witnesses at this time? No, your honor. That concludes staff's case. Alright. In that case, let's move on to closing statements. Mister Ankarski, would MMR Fiber like to make a closing statement at this time? Yes. Briefly, your honor. MMR Fiber would like to thank your honor and staff for their work on this application, and please let us know if there's anything we can do to assist in processing this before the commission. Thank you. Alright. Thank you so much. And, miss Humphrey, would staff like to make any closing statements at this time? Just briefly, your honor.
As staff's witnesses indicated, staff does support the granting of the CCNN in this case. We do thank the parties for for the company, actually, to for the for the assistance in providing information as requested by staff and your honor for the thoroughness of your questions. Thank you very much. Alright. Thank you so much. Before we wrap up for today, I wanna briefly touch base on the the questions the clarifying questions that I had about MMR Group. I believe the only ones that I had outstanding was
confirmation of, what jurisdiction it was incorporated, when it was incorporated initially, and then when it was initially authorized to conduct business, in the state of Arizona. Is that information that the company would be willing to file in, like, a late filed exhibit that just provides some clarification on those questions? Certainly, your honor. And we can definitely get that. And, approximately how much time would the company need to be able to provide that in a filing? Miss Hunt, do you have any idea how long it would take you to get that? I can't imagine too long, and I'm happy to put that together as quick as possible.
If if we can have ten days, let let I'm going to start on it as soon as we conclude. Alright. Ten days is perfectly fine with me. Miss Humphrey, would staff like any period of time to provide a response? I don't believe that we need to. Okay. We need to do that. Alright. In that case, so I will, you know, keep the record open, for ten days after today so that the company can just provide that supplemental information as a late filed exhibit. Aside from that, I believe that we have entered all of the exhibits that were offered for today. I'm going to quickly go off the record to speak with our court reporter.
Adam, at this time, do you have any questions, or is there anything else that you need clarified before we go today? No, judge. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I'm good. In that case, we'll go back on the record. While we were off the record, I confirmed with the court reporter whether they needed anything clarified, and he did not. With that, is there anything else that we need to address before we adjourn, mister Ankarski? I guess, just just to clarify the the questions about MMR Group. If MMR Group is not authorized to transact business in Arizona, I mean, are there any concerns with with that?
Because they're not the entity providing service in Arizona. As you saw on the, the the organizational chart, you know, they have subsidiaries that do operate in Arizona, which MMR Fiber is one of them and Southwest Power is the other. So I guess I just kind of was curious where that you know, if if there were concerns with that. I and I I that's just me not knowing the answer at this point. Yeah. I I I don't have any concerns per se with them not actually, performing business potentially in Arizona. But if they they are conducting business, obviously, that would be something that you would want to ensure with the corporation division that
the the company is all squared. But for the purposes of providing telecommunication services, the applicant is MMR fiber. They're gonna be the ones who are providing these services. So as long as MMR group, as a company isn't, you know, if it's not, intermixed, then I I don't have concerns about that. It just, you know, was something that I thought of as I I went through and and just wanted to ask and, get some confirmation. Understood. We can provide that response either way that falls. Thank you for the clarification. Of course. Anything else? Nothing else, your honor. Miss Humphrey, anything from staff?
Nothing further from staff. Thank you. Alright. In that case, I wanna thank you all for your participation today. This matter will be taken under advisement, and a recommended opinion and order will be issued for the commission's consideration at a future open meeting. This hearing is adjoined. Thank you. Thank you.