The Federal Communications Commission’s (Commission) Office of Managing Director (OMD) has issued a Public Notice announcing a contribution factor of 25 percent for the fourth quarter of 2019 that will support the federal universal service support mechanisms. The contribution factor is calculated using the total projected quarterly costs of universal service support mechanisms and the total projected collected end-user interstate and international telecommunications revenues. Each provider’s contribution obligation will be reduced by the circularity discount, 0.198982, to determine their contribution requirement for the quarter.
Contribution payments will be due on the dates provided by the invoice. For late payments: (1) interest will accrue daily; (2) contributors may be subject to enforcement measures by the Commission; and (3) contributors may be billed by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) for the reasonable costs in collecting the late payments. Additionally, providers may not recover through a federal universal service line item an amount that exceeds the contribution factor. If a contributor is required to contribute an amount that exceeds its interstate and end-user telecommunications revenue, then they may petition the Commission for a waiver of the limited international revenues exception (LIRE) threshold.
