The FCC’s Office of Managing Director (OMD) has announced that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the third quarter of 2024 will be 34.4 percent. The Commission calculates the quarterly contribution factor based on the ratio of total projected quarterly costs of the universal service support mechanisms to contributors’ total projected collected end-user interstate and international telecommunications revenues, net of projected contributions. The third quarter’s total projected costs are about $2.10 billion. This included an offset of $79.76 million in unused funds from prior years applied at the direction of OMD. Based on submitted Form 499-Qs, the total projected collected interstate and international end-user telecommunications revenues for this upcoming quarter are about $8.30 billion.
The FCC makes clear that, during the third quarter of 2024, carriers may not recover through a federal universal service line-item an amount exceeding 34.4 percent of the interstate telecommunications charges on a customer’s bill.
