(1) All companies must retain, for at least three years from the date they are created, all records that would be relevant, in the event of a complaint or investigation, to a determination of the company's compliance with the service quality standards established by WAC 480-120-133 (Response time for calls to business office or repair center during regular business hours), 480-120-401 (Network performance standards), 480-120-411 (Network maintenance), and 480-120-440 (Repair standards for service interruptions and impairments, excluding major outages).

(2) Major outages report. Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, any company experiencing a major outage that lasts more than forty-eight hours must provide a major outage report to the commission within ten business days of the major outage. The major outages report must include a description of each major outage and a statement that includes the time, the cause, the location and number of affected access lines, and the duration of the interruption or impairment. When applicable, the report must include a description of preventive actions to be taken to avoid future outages. This reporting requirement does not include company-initiated major outages that are in accordance with the contract provisions between the company and its customers or other planned interruptions that are part of the normal operational and maintenance requirements of the company.

The commission staff may request oral reports from companies concerning major outages at any time and companies must provide the requested information.

(3) The commission may choose to investigate matters to protect the public interest, and may request further information from companies that details geographic area and type of service, and such other information as the commission requests.

(4) If consistent with the purposes of this section, the commission may, by order, approve for a company an alternative measurement or reporting format for any of the reports required by this section, based on evidence that:

(a) The company cannot reasonably provide the measurement or reports as required;

(b) The alternative measurement or reporting format will provide a reasonably accurate measurement of the company's performance relative to the substantive performance standard; and

(c) The ability of the commission and other parties to enforce compliance with substantive performance standard will not be significantly impaired by the use of the alternative measurement or reporting format.

(5) Subsection (4) of this section does not preclude application for an exemption under WAC 480-120-015 (Exemptions from rules in chapter 480-120 WAC).