§  54.201   Definition of eligible telecommunications carriers, generally.

   (a) Carriers eligible to receive support.

   (1) Only eligible telecommunications carriers designated under this
   subpart shall receive universal service support distributed pursuant to
   subparts D and E of this part. Eligible telecommunications carriers
   designated under this subpart for purposes of receiving support only
   under subpart E of this part must provide Lifeline service directly to
   qualifying low-income consumers.

   (2) [Reserved]

   (3) This paragraph does not apply to offset or reimbursement support
   distributed pursuant to subpart G of this part.

   (4) This paragraph does not apply to support distributed pursuant to
   subpart F of this part.

   (b) A state commission shall upon its own motion or upon request
   designate a common carrier that meets the requirements of paragraph (d)
   of this section as an eligible telecommunications carrier for a service
   area designated by the state commission.

   (c) Upon request and consistent with the public interest, convenience,
   and necessity, the state commission may, in the case of an area served
   by a rural telephone company, and shall, in the case of all other
   areas, designate more than one common carrier as an eligible
   telecommunications carrier for a service area designated by the state
   commission, so long as each additional requesting carrier meets the
   requirements of paragraph (d) of this section. Before designating an
   additional eligible telecommunications carrier for an area served by a
   rural telephone company, the state commission shall find that the
   designation is in the public interest.

   (d) A common carrier designated as an eligible telecommunications
   carrier under this section shall be eligible to receive universal
   service support in accordance with section 254 of the Act and, except
   as described in paragraph (d)(3) of this section, shall throughout the
   service area for which the designation is received:

   (1) Offer the services that are supported by federal universal service
   support mechanisms under subpart B of this part and section 254(c) of
   the Act, either using its own facilities or a combination of its own
   facilities and resale of another carrier's services (including the
   services offered by another eligible telecommunications carrier); and

   (2) Advertise the availability of such services and the charges
   therefore using media of general distribution.

   (3) Exception. Price cap carriers that serve census blocks that are
   identified by the forward-looking cost model as low-cost, census blocks
   that are served by an unsubsidized competitor as defined in § 54.5
   meeting the requisite public interest obligations specified in § 54.309,
   or census blocks where a subsidized competitor is receiving federal
   high-cost support to deploy modern networks capable of providing voice
   and broadband to fixed locations, are not required to comply with
   paragraphs (d)(1) and (2) of this section in these specific geographic
   areas. Such price cap carriers remain obligated to maintain existing
   voice telephony service in these specific geographic areas unless and
   until a discontinuance is granted pursuant to § 63.71 of this chapter.

   (e) For the purposes of this section, the term facilities means any
   physical components of the telecommunications network that are used in
   the transmission or routing of the services that are designated for
   support pursuant to subpart B of this part.

   (f) For the purposes of this section, the term "own facilities"
   includes, but is not limited to, facilities obtained as unbundled
   network elements pursuant to part 51 of this chapter, provided that
   such facilities meet the definition of the term "facilities" under this
   subpart.

   (g) A state commission shall not require a common carrier, in order to
   satisfy the requirements of paragraph (d)(1) of this section, to use
   facilities that are located within the relevant service area, as long
   as the carrier uses facilities to provide the services designated for
   support pursuant to subpart B of this part within the service area.

   (h) A state commission shall not designate a common carrier as an
   eligible telecommunications carrier for purposes of receiving support
   only under subpart E of this part unless the carrier seeking such
   designation has demonstrated that it is financially and technically
   capable of providing the supported Lifeline service in compliance with
   subpart E of this part.

   (i) A state commission shall not designate as an eligible
   telecommunications carrier a telecommunications carrier that offers the
   services supported by federal universal service support mechanisms
   exclusively through the resale of another carrier's services.

   [ 62 FR 32948 , June 17, 1997, as amended at  63 FR 2125 , Jan. 13, 1998;
    64 FR 62123 , Nov. 16, 1999;  71 FR 65750 , Nov. 9, 2006;  77 FR 12966 ,
   Mar. 2, 2012;  80 FR 4476 , Jan. 27, 2015;  80 FR 40935 , July 14, 2015;  81 FR 33089 , May 24, 2016;  84 FR 71327 , Dec. 27, 2019]