On March 12, 2021, The Commission’s Office of Managing Director (“OMD”) released a Public Notice announcing that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the second quarter of 2021 will be 0.334 or 33.4%. Carriers may not, during the second quarter of 2021, recover through a federal universal service line item an amount that exceeds 33.4% of the interstate telecommunications charges on a customer’s bill. Last quarter, the contribution factor was 0.318 or 31.8%.
The rate is calculated based on the ratio of total projected quarterly costs of universal service support mechanisms to contributors’ total projected collected end-user interstate and international telecommunications revenues, net of projected contributions. For the second quarter of 2021, the projected revenue requirement (or “costs”) of universal service support is $2,461.07 million and the projected industry revenue is $9.905670 billion. The quarterly contribution base is then adjusted to $7.370154 billion. If the Commission fails to act within 14 days following the release of the Public Notice, then the calculation is deemed to be approved.
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