Sec. 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 an incumbent local exchange carrier's (ILEC) subscriber lines 
or serves new subscriber lines in the ILEC's service area.
    (1) A competitive eligible telecommunications carrier shall receive 
support for each line it serves based on the support the ILEC receives 
for each line.
    (2) The ILEC's per-line support shall be calculated by dividing the 
ILEC's universal service support by the number of loops served by that 
ILEC at its most recent annual loop count.
    (3) A competitive eligible telecommunications carrier that uses 
switching functionalities purchased as unbundled network elements 
pursuant to Sec. 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 ILEC, if any. A 
competitive eligible telecommunications carrier that uses loops 
purchased as unbundled network elements pursuant to Sec. 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 ILEC's per-line 
payment from the high cost loop support and LTS, if any. The ILEC 
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 previously provided to the ILEC.
    (4) A competitive eligible telecommunications carrier that provides 
the supported services using neither unbundled network elements 
purchased pursuant to Sec. 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 previously provided to the ILEC for 
that customer.
    (b) Submission of information to the Administrator. In order to 
receive universal service support, a competitive eligible 
telecommunications carrier must provide the Administrator on or before 
July 31st of each year the number of working loops it serves in a 
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. This figure shall be 
calculated as of December 31st of the year preceding each July 31st 
filing.

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      Subpart E--Universal Service Support for Low-Income Consumers

    Effective Date Note: At  62 FR 32952 , June 17, 1997, subpart E was 
added to part 54, effective Jan. 1, 1998.