The FCC on its own motion issued an Order waiving application of the current budget control mechanism for rate-of-return carriers receiving high-cost support from legacy universal service fund mechanisms. The FCC instead adopted a budget constraint of 0% (i.e. a full waiver of the budget constraint) for the July 2021 to June 2022 tariff year and directed the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) to work with the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to recalculate the budget control mechanism using 0% and make the revised information publicly available. Recognizing that its Order may not give carriers sufficient notice to revise the annual tariff filings that they have been preparing, the FCC will not require affected carriers to account for the budget control mechanism waiver in their upcoming annual tariff filings. Instead, such carriers should account for the impact of the budget control mechanism either in their annual tariff filings or in revised tariff filings within 45 days of the Order’s June 3, 2021 adoption date. The FCC also granted a limited waiver of the current tariff filing fee for such filings.
