FCC proposal to change way it assesses contributions from carrier...
FCC proposal to change way it assesses contributions from carriers for universal service fund (USF) isn’t competitively neutral as required by Telecom Act, Verizon said in comments filed Mon. at agency. Commission has proposed assessing contributions on flat, per-connection…
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basis (CD Feb 15 p11), which means long distance companies would be freed from having to contribute, Verizon said. Companies collect USF fees from their customers to cover those contributions but size of those customer fees can affect their overall bills and thus, some say, their competitiveness. Verizon said per-connection plan would mean ILECs and wireless carriers would have to collect bulk of money because long distance companies didn’t have many “connections” -- lines to home or business or wireless phone numbers. FCC is looking at possible change in current system because carriers such as AT&T with declining revenue have complained that they're assessed too much and thus are collecting too much from their customers. Assessments are based on future revenue and AT&T has said it keeps finding itself collecting fees based on former, higher revenue. Verizon said that problem could be solved by basing contributions on estimated future revenue, with true-up feature, which is proposal AT&T made in another proceeding. Among others weighing in late Mon., American Assn. of Paging Carriers (AAPC) said proposal would result in “unjustified increase in USF assessments” for paging carriers. AAPC recommended that 2-tiered fee structure be established for paging carriers, with less charged to one-way pagers than to advanced paging services. “Converting USF assessments for paging carriers to a flat, per pager charge would be a desirable modification… if implemented properly,” AAPC said. “However, the proposed charge of [25 cents] per pager per month is grossly excessive and unjustified and inconsistent with statutory requirements.” USTA urged FCC to “to look at the larger picture” and develop long-term plan for collecting universal service contributions. “The failure to adopt a contribution mechanism that allows for the full funding of the high-cost universal service support mechanism in a competitively neutral manner is contrary to law and would be bad public policy,” USTA said. OPASTCO and National Rural Telecom Assn. said they supported idea of flat fee but not connection-based method proposed by agency earlier this year. Organizations said plan would violate mandate that contributions be made on nondiscriminatory basis: “The proposal would practically exempt from making contributions providers whose principle offering is the interstate transmission that actually gives any telecommunications service its interstate character… If LECs are to contribute under a flat-fee mechanism, then the IXCs must pay monthly contributions of at least the same amount for each of their interstate customers.”