The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved the motion of...
The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved the motion of Commissioner James Cawley Thursday to reopen the record of its rural ILEC access charge investigation order (docket No. C-2009-2098380) to examine the “cross-effects” from the FCC’s Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation…
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order, the PUC said. The PUC will initiate a new proceeding no later than April 20 to examine the implementation of the FCC order, it said. The implementation of the FCC’s USF order triggers a series of compliance obligations, Cawley said. The FCC’s order also has material effects on major adjudication decisions by the PUC, and the PUC’s access charge order needs to be updated accordingly, he said. The PUC’s rural ILEC access charge investigation order had ruled that the intrastate switched access rates for rural incumbent LECs had to gradually move to their interstate equivalents. The rural ILECs would have been afforded “revenue neutral” recovery of “lost” intrastate carrier access charge revenues from retail local service rates through the use of a $23 monthly basic local residential service “benchmark.” That’s the residential local rate per month, and would not include various taxes.