ROODE@BIONET-20.ARPA (David Roode) (06/25/87)
Following is the FCC access charges news release of June 10, 1987.
(This is not the official text of the Commission's Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking (NPRM).)
FCC PROPOSES ELIMINATION OF INTERSTATE ACCESS CHARGES EXEMPTION
FOR ENHANCED SERVICE PROVIDERS
The Commission has proposed elimination of the exemption from
interstate access charges currently allowed enhanced service
providers, effective January 1, 1988. Charges for intrastate service
would not be affected.
Enhanced services add value to, or enhance the use of, basic
transmission service. Examples of enhanced services, which the
Commission defined in its Computer II and Computer III procedings,
include computer-based applications such as protocol processing,
information retrieval systems and voice or message services.
In its access charge proceeding, the Commission provided for
exemptions for a number of groups. These exemptions have gradually
been eliminated.
In the pre-access environment, enhanced service providers and WATS
resellers were paying local business exchange service rates for their
interstate access, rather than the higher charges that other common
carriers (OCCs) were paying and the even higher amounts assessed to
MTS and WATS through the divisions of revenues and settlements
processes. The Commission decided that the immediate imposition of
interstate access charges on enhanced service providers and resellers
could affect their ability to provide service during the time they
were adjusting to the new access charge rules. Consequently, the
Commission granted enhanced service providers, as well as resellers, a
temporary exemption from payment of interstate access charges.
In proposing to eliminate this exemption, the Commission said it
was concerned that the charges currently paid by enhanced service
providers did not contribute sufficiently to the cost of the exchange
access facilities they use in offering services to the public.
Concerns about rate shock might justify a temporary, but not a
permanent, exemption from access charges. Enhanced service providers
have had ample notice of the Commission's ultimate intent to apply
interstate access charges and ample opportunity to adjust their
planning accordingly.
Moreover, it said, the potential financial impact on enhanced
service providers of eliminating their exemption is substantially
smaller than it was at the time the exemption was granted. In
particular, the Commission noted that the common carrier line charge
has decreased dramatically with the introduction of subscriber line
charges. END