Access Charges - Ohio University
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Transcript Access Charges - Ohio University
Access Charges
• The major questions
– What services did IXC’s require in order to
provide their interLATA toll and private line
services?
– What to do about the over-allocation of local
loop costs to the interstate jurisdiction
– No more AT&T “toll pot” to take care of that
What services did IXCs require?
• Access to the local loop
• Access to the telco switch (or switches
depending on routing of traffic)
• Access to inter-office trunks
• Access to customer information
• Access to billing and collection
• Access to directory assistance and in some
cases long distance operators
Establishment of Access Charges
• Switched access
• Special access
• Billing and collection
– Started out as a tariffed service; then moved to
a contract basis
Switched Access
• Access required by IXC to provide regular
toll service
• Charges include:
– Rates to cover local loop (Subscriber Line
Charge and Carrier Common Line Charge)
– Local switching (end office charge)
– Transport
• “Equal charge rule” to give new entrants a chance to
compete against AT&T
Special Access
• Access required by IXC to provide
dedicated or private line service
• Charges include:
–
–
–
–
Local distribution channel
Channel mileage
Channel mileage termination
Other services like multiplexing or special line
conditioning
Access charge process
Part 32 chart of accounts
Allocation between regulated and nonregulated
nonregulated
Jurisdictional separations
State
Part 69 Access Rules
Other
Access rates
How do you file access rates for
1400+ companies?
• Creation of National Exchange Carrier
Association (NECA
– Administered pools for access charges
• Voluntary pools for switched access (except loop);
and for special access—RBOCs didn’t participate
– Mandatory pool for local loop access charges
until 1988
• RBOCs got out as soon as they could, but continued
to provide subsidy to the pool
What do you do about universal
service?
• Remember that the local loop has been
over-allocated to the interstate jurisdiction
• Decide to allocate only 25% of the local
loop costs to interstate; phase down period;
• How to recover the interstate cost of the
local loop?
– From the IXC or from the subscriber?
– On a flat-rate basis or per minute?
The CCL and the SLC
• Subscriber Line Charge is established
– Paid by the subscriber
– Initially the FCC wanted it to be $6.00; big outcry
– Phased in and capped at $3.50 for residential and small
business; $6.00 for multi-line business
• Carrier Common Line Charge
– Paid by the IXC
– Per minute charge, originating and terminating
– Targeted to recover the loop RRQ not covered by the
SLC; started at $.0524 per minute each way
More on the SLC and CCLC
• Shifting of loop costs from the long distance
provider to the subscriber
– As SLC
CCLC
• IXCs continually object to paying the
CCLC
Other universal service
provisions
• Universal Service Fund
– High cost support for carriers with higher-thanaverage loop costs
– Fund calculated by NECA based on cost
information provided by all LECs (about
$700M at its high point)
– Charged monthly on a presubscribed line basis
to IXCs
Presubscribed lines
• Just a reminder about equal access provisions
– Equal access required dialing parity (1+ access for all
long distance carriers)
– This created an interesting problem for AT&T
• Lots of presubscribed customers (most of the residential
market)
• Lots of low-volume customers (residential users who made
few long distance calls)
• Proportionately large payment by AT&T for USF support
Even More on Universal Service
• Implicit subsidies that are part of the
jurisdictional separations process and so flow into
access rates
– No way to know exactly how much this amount is,
estimates from $2B to as much as $20B
• Lifeline and LinkUp plans
– Direct aid to low-income subscribers to keep them on
the network
– Paid by IXCs on a presubscribed line basis
The continuing challenge
• How do you get all of the subsidy out of
access charges?
• How do you decide if you need to continue
some sort of support for high cost providers
in order to keep rates affordable?
• And the big question?
– What do you do when you add local
competition to all of this?