BELLS PROPOSE NUMBERS-CONNECTIONS USF PAYMENTS AS FALLBACK POSITION

摘要

AT&T and Verizon said Universal Service Fund contributions based on phone numbers and connections beats using numbers and revenue. The carriers, which prefer a numbers-only system, pitched the fall-back hybrid in an FCC filing. They would impose an 85-cent rate on assessable residential, wireless and business numbers and set up a new "assessable connection" category. Assessable dedicated connections up to 64 kbps would pay $5 each and faster ones $35. Adopting the alternative plan would cut the consumer share of USF contributions to about 38 percent, and business customers would pay the rest, AT&T and Verizon said. The portion of USF collected from special access and other dedicated connections would rise to 16 percent from today's 8 percent, the telcos said.