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 -------