NTCA and Frontier supported a request by West Virginia rural...
NTCA and Frontier supported a request by West Virginia rural telcos for an “on-going waiver” of the method used to determine if an ILEC has satisfied the rate floor requirements, and the method used to satisfy rate comparability reporting requirements…
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for local service rates. The rate floor requirement, adopted in the USF/intercarrier compensation order, requires an ILEC’s rates to meet an urban rate floor in order to be eligible for full high-cost support. The floor is determined by adding the national average of local rates plus those state regulated fees. The West Virginia companies -- Armstrong, Hardy Telecommunications and Spruce Knob Seneca Rocks -- asked that the end-user rate benchmark be applied to the weighted average of all their respective local service plan rates in the state, rather than separately to each rate on a plan-by-plan basis. NTCA supported the petition generally, subject to “well-defined limits intended to maintain the integrity of the rule,” the association said (http://bit.ly/ZRvE5l). “The use of a weighted average of all applicable rates best reflects the network-based cost recovery process and ensures that each recipient of high-cost loop support is making reasonable efforts to recover costs from end users prior to drawing upon such support,” NTCA said. The association said, however, that it opposes the use of weighted averaging that would respond to “discretionary pricing strategies.” Frontier, which has asked for “essentially the same relief,” said it supports the petition (http://bit.ly/ZRvTNF). Unique rate structures within West Virginia territories make it reasonable to use a weighted average consumer rate when calculating compliance with the FCC’s “rate floor” and “rate ceiling,” Frontier said. “Given the unique circumstances involved, it would be in the public interest” for the commission to grant both Frontier’s and the West Virginia companies’ petitions, the telco said.