The FCC has released a public notice granting a one-time waiver to price cap incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) who were required to file short form Tariff Review Plans (TRPs), currently due on May 17, 2017, for the purposes of the 2017 annual access charge filing. Price cap ILECs are obligated to file, on an annual basis, revised access charge tariffs based on a ratemaking methodology. Specifically, the short form TRP is a spreadsheet that details the exogenous cost adjustments that price cap ILECs might make to their price cap indices. However, for 2017, two important factors needed to calculate the exogenous costs adjustments related to regulatory fees, the Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) and North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) expenses, were not available prior to the short form May 17, 2017 filing deadline. Rather than have price cap ILECs file incomplete or unhelpful short form reports, or delay the reporting deadline closer to the long form filing deadline, the FCC has completely waived the short form filing deadline for all price cap ILECs.
