The FCC Wireline Bureau clarified certain rules adopted in its...
The FCC Wireline Bureau clarified certain rules adopted in its Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation order, in an order released Monday. It said the ability to charge under the VoIP symmetry tariffing provision in Section 61.26(f) is limited by Section 51.913(b),…
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which “does not permit a local exchange carrier to charge for functions not performed by the local exchange carrier itself or the affiliated or unaffiliated provider of interconnected VoIP service or non-interconnected VoIP service.” The clarification came in response to a letter from YMax, the company that sells the MagicJack VoIP product, asking if the rules permit a competitive LEC to tariff and charge the full benchmark rate level even if it includes functions that neither it nor its VoIP retail partner actually provide. The bureau also clarified a high-cost support provision, in response to Verizon Wireless uncertainty about whether the rules superseded a prior merger commitment. “Verizon Wireless will receive support in 2012 based on its merger commitments, as clarified by the Corr Wireless Order, not based on the general phase down of competitive ETC support described in the USF/ICC Transformation Order,” the bureau said. It dismissed in part a petition for reconsideration filed by USTelecom, which asked for clarification that reductions in legacy support resulting from a failure to meet the urban rate floor would extend only to high-cost loop support and high-cost model support. The order had already addressed the issue, the bureau said, ruling that “support reductions associated with the rate floor will offset frozen CAF Phase I support only to the extent that the recipient’s frozen CAF Phase I support replaced HCLS and HCMS."