FCC Denies But Remands 6 Requests to Review USAC Audit Findings on Contributions
FCC staff denied requests for review of Universal Service Administrative Co. audit findings of USF contribution filings but remanded the cases to USAC for further consideration of some issues. The findings involve "whether certain revenues associated with specific mixed-use special…
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access lines (also referred to as private lines) should be considered interstate" in assessing USF contributions, said a Wireline Bureau order in docket 96-45 in Friday's Daily Digest. Carrier USF contributions are based on their interstate and international telecom end-user revenue. The review requests were filed by DeltaCom, McLeod USA Telecommunications Services, PacTec Communications, Puerto Rico Telephone, US Link and XO Communications. The facts varied, but each party said USAC misapplied a "ten percent rule" in the audits of their USF contribution filings, the order said. The rule assigns "mixed-use private or WATS" line costs as intrastate if 10 percent or less of a line's total traffic is interstate. "USAC appropriately relied on the ten percent rule to determine the jurisdictional nature of the revenues," the bureau wrote. "USAC may have failed to consider other relevant evidence that particular private lines were properly classified as intrastate. We therefore remand the requests for review to USAC for further consideration consistent with this Order."