§  54.307   Support to a competitive eligible telecommunications carrier.

   (a) Calculation of support. A competitive eligible telecommunications
   carrier shall receive universal service support to the extent that the
   competitive eligible telecommunications carrier captures the subscriber
   lines of an incumbent local exchange carrier (LEC) or serves new
   subscriber lines in the incumbent LEC's service area.

   (1) A competitive eligible telecommunications carrier serving loops in
   the service area of a rural incumbent local exchange carrier, as that
   term is defined in § 54.5 of this chapter, shall receive support for
   each line it serves in a particular service area based on the support
   the incumbent LEC would receive for each such line, disaggregated by
   cost zone if disaggregation zones have been established within the
   service area pursuant to § 54.315 of this subpart. A competitive
   eligible telecommunications carrier serving loops in the service area
   of a non-rural incumbent local exchange carrier shall receive support
   for each line it serves in a particular wire center based on the
   support the incumbent LEC would receive for each such line. A
   competitive eligible telecommunications carrier serving loops in the
   service area of a rate-of-return carrier shall be eligible to receive
   Interstate Common Line Support for each line it serves in the service
   area in accordance with the formula in § 54.901.

   (2) A competitive eligible telecommunications carrier that uses
   switching purchased as unbundled network elements pursuant to § 51.307
   of this chapter to provide the supported services shall receive the
   lesser of the unbundled network element price for switching or the
   per-line DEM support of the incumbent LEC, if any. A competitive
   eligible telecommunications carrier that uses loops purchased as
   unbundled network elements pursuant to § 51.307 of this chapter to
   provide the supported services shall receive the lesser of the
   unbundled network element price for the loop or the incumbent LEC's
   per-line payment from the high-cost loop support, LTS, and Interstate
   Common Line Support mechanisms, if any. The incumbent LEC providing
   nondiscriminatory access to unbundled network elements to such
   competitive eligible telecommunications carrier shall receive the
   difference between the level of universal service support provided to
   the competitive eligible telecommunications carrier and the
   per-customer level of support that the incumbent LEC would have
   received.

   (3) A competitive eligible telecommunications carrier that provides the
   supported services using neither unbundled network elements purchased
   pursuant to § 51.307 of this chapter nor wholesale service purchased
   pursuant to section 251(c)(4) of the Act will receive the full amount
   of universal service support that the incumbent LEC would have received
   for that customer.

   (b) In order to receive support pursuant to this subpart, a competitive
   eligible telecommunications carrier must report to the Administrator
   the number of working loops it serves in a service area pursuant to the
   schedule set forth in paragraph (c) of this section. For a competitive
   eligible telecommunications carrier serving loops in the service area
   of a rural incumbent local exchange carrier, as that term is defined in
   § 54.5, the carrier must report, by customer class, the number of
   working loops it serves in the service area, disaggregated by cost zone
   if disaggregation zones have been established within the service area
   pursuant to § 54.315. For a competitive eligible telecommunications
   carrier serving loops in the service area of a non-rural telephone
   company, the carrier must report the number of working loops it serves
   in the service area, by customer class if the non-rural telephone
   company receives Interstate Common Line Support pursuant to § 54.901 and
   by disaggregation zone if disaggregation zones have been established
   within the service area pursuant to § 54.315 of this subpart, and the
   number of working loops it serves in each wire center in the service
   area. For universal service support purposes, working loops are defined
   as the number of working Exchange Line C&WF loops used jointly for
   exchange and message telecommunications service, including C&WF
   subscriber lines associated with pay telephones in C&WF Category 1, but
   excluding WATS closed end access and TWX service. Competitive eligible
   telecommunications carriers providing mobile wireless service in an
   incumbent LEC's service area shall use the customer's billing address
   for purposes of identifying the service location of a mobile wireless
   customer in a service area.

   (c) A competitive eligible telecommunications carrier must submit the
   data required pursuant to paragraph (b) of this section according to
   the schedule.

   (1) No later than July 31st of each year, submit data as of December
   31st of the previous calendar year;

   (2) No later than September 30th of each year, submit data as of March
   31st of the existing calendar year;

   (3) No later than December 30th of each year, submit data as of June
   30th of the existing calendar year;

   (4) No later than March 30th of each year, submit data as of September
   30th of the previous calendar year.

   (d) Newly designated eligible telecommunications carriers.
   Notwithstanding the deadlines in paragraph (c) of this section, a
   carrier shall be eligible to receive support as of the effective date
   of its designation as an eligible telecommunications carrier under
   section 214(e)(2) or (e)(6), provided that it submits the data required
   pursuant to paragraph (b) of this section within 60 days of that
   effective date. Thereafter, the eligible telecommunications carrier
   must submit the data required in paragraph (b) of this section pursuant
   to the schedule in paragraph (c) of this section.

   [ 62 FR 32948 , June 17, 1997, as amended at  63 FR 2128 , Jan. 13, 1998;
    64 FR 67431 , Dec. 1, 1999;  65 FR 26516 , May 8, 2000;  66 FR 30087 , June
   5, 2001;  66 FR 59726 , Nov. 30, 2001;  68 FR 31623 , May 28, 2003;  69 FR 34602 , June 22, 2004;  70 FR 29979 , May 25, 2005]