FCC Releases Revised 2011 USF Form 499-A

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Steve Augustino

On March 1, the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau released its revised Form 499-A, the Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet.  This Worksheet must be used by telecommunications providers and interconnected VoIP providers to report annual 2010 revenues for USF, TRS, NANPA, LNP and FCC Regulatory Fee assessments.  The Form 499-A is due by April 1, 2011.

The 2011 Form 499-A Instructions mark the Bureau's first major revision to the Instructions since the FCC began using the Form 499-A in 2000.  The Bureau has substantially reorganized the Instructions and consolidated some of the discussions.  As a result, a comparison of this year's Instructions to the 2010 Instructions is not an easy task.  We will continue to review the Form and expect to discover any changes over the next few weeks.  Filers should consult their regulatory counsel prior to filing their 2011 Form, just to be sure.   

For the benefit of our readers, we post here the FCC Public Notice, the revised Form 499-A and the revised Instructions.  These forms also are available on the Universal Service Links page of our Resource Center.  For easy "two-click" access to these and other regulatory resources, bookmark our site. 

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New USF Form Announced; Audio Bridging Changes Headline the Revisions

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Steve Augustino

UPDATED -- FORM 499 RELEASED

The FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau announced the new FCC Form 499A today.  This form, which must be used to file the April 1 annual revenue report, includes several potentially significant changes.  Audio bridging providers (conference service providers) and those close to the de minimis threshold are most affected.

As of COB yesterday, only the announcement was available.  The 499A itself will be released today and I will update this post when it is available.   UPDATE:  The new Form 499A is available here.

Follow the jump for a discussion of the changes.

According to the public notice, the primary changes are:

* several revisions regarding the obligations of stand-along conferencing providers to pay USF. The FCC added a check box for audio bridging providers, updated their "who pays what" chart to include audio bridging and added a description of audio bridging providers. Last year, the FCC mistakenly referred to audio bridging providers as "telecommunications service providers" and then quickly corrected that error.  I will be checking to see if the new guidance is consistent with the Calling Card Classification Order.  UPDATE:  The form confirms that audio bridging providers offering service on a non-common carrier basis are only subject to USF, and not TRS and other funds.  However, on p. 29 (fn 47) the instructions again mistakenly refer to audio bridging as "telcommunications services." 

* adjusted the de minimis estimation factor and the circularity factor to account for the new 14% USF contribution factor. This is a sure sign that a USF factor in the 14% range is here to stay.  Important Note:  The FCC did not adjust the "Limited Interstate Revenues Exemption" (LIRE) threshold, even though the USF factor now exceeds the threshold.  Thus, there is a possibility that a carrier's interstate revenue percentage will exceed 12% but the carrier will still pay more in USF than its total interstate revenues.  Such a result was declared unlawful by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1999.

* "added more specific language, consistent with the body of the text" to require CMRS and interconnected VoIP providers to submit traffic studies if they are not relying upon the safe harbor percentage of interstate calling. The filing obligation (not a prior approval requirement) has existed for some time, but compliance with it was low. I expect this will be an area for enforcement inquiries this year.

More when the Form is released. Stay tuned.
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