FCC Seeks Comment on USF Low Income Disbursement Process

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) seeks comment on a proposal for disbursing Universal Service Fund low income support to eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) based upon claims for reimbursement of actual support payments made, instead of projected claims for support.

Payment based on actual support payments could replace the current administrative process, under which the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) reimburses ETCs for low income support each month based on USAC’s projection of payments and on a “true-up” calculated using an ETC's actual support payments. USAC proposes to establish a monthly due date by which ETCs must submit their FCC Form 497 in order to receive a payment at the end of the following month. Carriers that do not file FCC Form 497 by the monthly deadline in a given month would not receive a payment in the following month. USAC would process an FCC Form 497 received after the monthly deadline during the following month, and would make a disbursement based on that support claim in the subsequent month. The FCC seeks comment on monthly filing deadline and on the process for disbursing payment to ETCs that miss a monthly deadline.