§  54.806   Rural Digital Opportunity Fund reporting obligations, compliance,
and recordkeeping.

   (a) Recipients of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support shall be
   subject to the reporting obligations set forth in § § 54.313, 54.314, and
   54.316.

   (b) Recipients of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support shall be
   subject to the compliance measures, recordkeeping requirements and
   audit requirements set forth in § 54.320(a)-(c).

   (c) Recipients of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support shall be
   subject to the non-compliance measures set forth in § 54.320(d) subject
   to the following modifications related to the recovery of support.

   (1) If the support recipient does not report it has come into full
   compliance after the grace period for its sixth year or eighth year
   service milestone as applicable or if USAC determines in the course of
   a compliance review that the eligible telecommunications carrier does
   not have sufficient evidence to demonstrate that it is offering service
   to all of the locations required by the sixth or eighth year service
   milestone as set forth in § 54.320(d)(3):

   (i) Sixth year service milestone. Support will be recovered as follows
   after the sixth year service milestone grace period or if USAC later
   determines in the course of a compliance review that a support
   recipient does not have sufficient evidence to demonstrate that it was
   offering service to all of the locations required by the sixth year
   service milestone:

   (A) If an ETC has deployed to 95 percent or more of the Connect America
   Cost Model location count or the adjusted Connect America Cost Model
   location count if there are fewer locations, but less than 100 percent,
   USAC will recover an amount of support that is equal to 1.25 times the
   average amount of support per location received in the state for that
   ETC over the support term for the relevant number of locations;

   (B) If an ETC has deployed to 90 percent or more of the Connect America
   Cost Model location count or the adjusted Connect America Cost Model
   location count if there are fewer locations, but less than 95 percent,
   USAC will recover an amount of support that is equal to 1.5 times the
   average amount of support per location received in the state for that
   ETC over the support term for the relevant number of locations, plus 5
   percent of the support recipient's total Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
   support authorized over the 10-year support term for that state;

   (C) If an ETC has deployed to fewer than 90 percent of the Connect
   America Cost Model location count or the adjusted Connect America Cost
   Model location count if there are fewer locations, USAC will recover an
   amount of support that is equal to 1.75 times the average amount of
   support per location received in the state for that ETC over the
   support term for the relevant number of locations, plus 10 percent of
   the support recipient's total Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support
   authorized over the 10-year support term for that state.

   (ii) Eighth year service milestone. If a Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
   support recipient is required to serve more new locations than
   determined by the Connect America Cost Model, support will be recovered
   as follows after the eighth year service milestone grace period or if
   USAC later determines in the course of a compliance review that a
   support recipient does not have sufficient evidence to demonstrate that
   it was offering service to all of the locations required by the eighth
   year service milestone:

   (A) If an ETC has deployed to 95 percent or more of its new location
   count, but less than 100 percent, USAC will recover an amount of
   support that is equal to the average amount of support per location
   received in the state for that ETC over the support term for the
   relevant number of locations;

   (B) If an ETC has deployed to 90 percent or more of its new location
   count, but less than 95 percent, USAC will recover an amount of support
   that is equal to 1.25 times the average amount of support per location
   received in the state for that ETC over the support term for the
   relevant number of locations;

   (C) If an ETC has deployed to 85 percent or more of its new location
   count, but less than 90 percent, USAC will recover an amount of support
   that is equal to 1.5 times the average amount of support per location
   received in the state for that ETC over the support term for the
   relevant number of locations, plus 5 percent of the support recipient's
   total Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support authorized over the
   10-year support term for that state;

   (D) If an ETC has deployed to less than 85 percent of its new location
   count, USAC will recover an amount of support that is equal to 1.75
   times the average amount of support per location received in the state
   for that ETC over the support term for the relevant number of
   locations, plus 10 percent of the support recipient's total Rural
   Digital Opportunity Fund support authorized over the 10-year support
   term for that state.

   (2) Any support recipient that believes it cannot meet the third-year
   service milestone must notify the Wireline Competition Bureau within 10
   business days of the third-year service milestone deadline and provide
   information explaining this expected deficiency. If a support recipient
   has not made such a notification by March 1 following the third-year
   service milestone, and has deployed to fewer than 20 percent of the
   required number of locations by the end of the third year, the
   recipient will immediately be in default and subject to support
   recovery. The Tier 4 status six-month grace period as set forth in
   § 54.320(d)(iv) will not be applicable.

   Effective Date Note: At  85 FR 13798 , Mar. 10, 2020, § 54.806 was added.
   This section contains information collection and recordkeeping
   requirements and will not become effective until approval has been
   given by the Office of Management and Budget.

   

Subpart K—Interstate Common Line Support Mechanism for Rate-of-Return
Carriers

   Source:  66 FR 59728 , Nov. 30, 2001, unless otherwise noted.