2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-SEVEN - Public Service (§§ 1 — 2641) › PART II - Communications (§§ 265 — 539) › Chapter 19 - Puerto Rico Telecommunications Act of 1996 (§§ 265 — 272) › Subchapter III - Regulation and Supervision (§§ 269 — 269l) › § 269e - Universal service

(a) Universal service principles.—
(1) The Board shall preserve and promote universal service through predictable, specific and sufficient support mechanisms, pursuant to the provisions of § 254 of the Federal Communications Act, and also pursuant to the following principles:
(A) The goal of universal service is to provide comparable quality telecommunications services to all sectors of the population and geographical areas of Puerto Rico.
(B) Telecommunications services shall be available throughout Puerto Rico at fair and reasonable rates, which means that the service rates in rural areas shall be reasonably comparable to those rates provided in urban areas.
(C) Advanced telecommunications services shall be available in all municipalities and communities, as well as in all health care providers’ facilities, libraries and classrooms in the public schools of Puerto Rico.
(2) All telecommunications companies shall make an equitable and nondiscriminatory contribution, as established by the Board, for the preservation and development of universal services in Puerto Rico.
(3) The structure of those support mechanisms developed, implemented and periodically reviewed by the Board shall complement but not duplicate the support mechanisms established at federal level.
(4) Universal service shall include the following services as a minimum without excluding any other service, as provided by the Board pursuant to subsection (c)(3) of this section:
(A) Access to all public switched telephone networks with voice grade capacity;
(B) single party service;
(C) access, free of charge, to emergency services, including the 911 emergency service, and
(D) access to operator services.
(b) Determination of eligible telecommunications companies.—
(1) The Board may, motu proprio or by petition, designate a telecommunications company as an eligible telecommunications company to provide universal service in one or more areas designated by the Board. On petition, and pursuant to the public interest, convenience and need, the Board may designate more than one company as an eligible telecommunications company for a service area established by the Board provided each company meets the requirements of clause (2) of this subsection. In order to make the corresponding designation, the Board shall take into consideration, among other factors, technological factors and the cost of providing the service.
(2) In order for a telecommunications company to be designated as a telecommunications company eligible to receive the universal service program funds, it shall, within the entire service area for which it has been designated:
(A) Provide the services supported by the universal service program using its own facilities or a combination of its own facilities and the resale of services of another telecommunications company, and
(B) publish in newspapers of general circulation the availability of such services and their rates.
(3) If no telecommunications company which receive funds from the universal service program wishes to, or is able to provide services to a community, or any part thereof, which has so requested them, the Board shall determine which telecommunications company or companies are in the best position to provide such service and shall order the corresponding procedures. Any telecommunications company which has been directed to provide services under this subsection must comply with the requirements of clause (2) of this subsection, and shall be designated as an eligible telecommunications company for such community or part thereof.
(4) The Board may allow an eligible telecommunications company, through a previous authorization from the Board, to surrender its designation in any area covered by more than one eligible telecommunications company. Before granting the authorization, the Board shall impose upon the remaining eligible telecommunications companies the obligation to guarantee the service to the users of the eligible telecommunications company which withdraws, and shall require sufficient notice to allow the purchase or construction of proper facilities by any other eligible telecommunications company. The costs and expenses incurred by the telecommunications companies to provide eligible services shall be reimbursed to them through the universal service support procedures. The Board shall establish a period of time, which shall not exceed one year after the approval of such withdrawal under this subsection, to complete the purchase or construction.
(c) Universal service procedures.—
(1) Within one hundred and twenty (120) days following the establishment of the Board, the aforesaid shall initiate a formal procedure to incorporate the support mechanisms to the universal service throughout Puerto Rico. As part of this procedure, the Board shall take into consideration the report, if any, submitted by the Federal State Board created by virtue of § 254 of the Federal Communications Act. This procedure shall include a period for notice and comments.
(2) As part of the procedure, the Board shall determine:
(A) The support mechanisms needed in the jurisdiction of Puerto Rico to extend or maintain the universal service. The decision to such effects shall be made by the majority of the members of the Board if the favored mechanism or mechanisms are included among those already being used in any area under the jurisdictions governed by the Federal Communications Act, or are among those under the consideration of the Federal Communications Commission or have been implemented in the different states of the United States of America. The decision to implement any other support mechanism shall require the unanimous vote of the members of the Board.
(B) Should it be determined that one of the support mechanisms should be the establishment of a fund to defray universal service throughout Puerto Rico, the annual sum thereof shall be equal to the difference between the cost of providing the eligible services and the maximum rates that can be charged for the same.
(C) The manner that monetary contributions made through the support mechanisms to the universal service fund throughout Puerto Rico shall be distributed among the eligible telecommunications companies, and
(D) the manner in which any other support mechanism shall be established, administered and controlled throughout Puerto Rico.
(3) The services to be defrayed by the universal service program in Puerto Rico shall include those services needed to deal with the particular needs throughout Puerto Rico, as established by the Board. In the determination of the services that shall be included in the definition of universal service, the Board shall take into consideration the recommendations, if any, made by the Federal-State Joint Board, established by § 254(a) of the Federal Communications Act, as well as those services implemented by the different states of the United States of America in their respective universal service programs.
(4) All telecommunications companies shall make equitable and nondiscriminatory contributions to the universal service fund.
(5) The obligation to contribute to the universal service fund shall begin on the date the telecommunications company begins to render telecommunications services in Puerto Rico and to generate income from such services, pursuant to § 254(f) of the Federal Communications Act.
(6) The Board shall have one hundred and eighty (180) days from the date of its constitution to complete the formal procedure provided by clause (1) of this subsection, and to implement universal service. If after one hundred and eighty (180) days the Board has not fixed the amount to be contributed by the telecommunications companies, the former shall fix a sum on that date as the provisional contribution to be paid by each telecommunications company until the amount to be required is finally determined. The amount fixed as a provisional contribution shall apply retroactively to the effective date of this act, and shall be paid henceforth until the Board modifies or replaces it, through a final, binding and unappealable decision, which shall be adopted within ninety (90) days following the date on which the provisional contribution was fixed. Said amount shall be paid for the first time by each telecommunications company, within fifteen (15) days following the date on which the sum is fixed, and henceforth, shall be paid quarterly, or as provided by the Board through regulations. Said amounts shall be paid by check, electronic transfer, or through any other means provided by the Board through regulations.
(7) Once a final determination is adopted regarding the mechanism to contribute to the universal service, the Board shall establish those measures needed to give credit for the sums paid in excess, or to collect deficiencies in the payments made prior to the date on which said final determination is adopted.
(8) The sums of money contributed by the telecommunications companies to the universal service fund through the support mechanisms established by the Board shall be covered into a special account in the Government Development Bank. Said fund shall be used exclusively to help to render, maintain and improve the services in support of which the fund is created.
(9) Within the year following the constitution of the Board, it shall designate an independent administrator, through competitive bidding, to manage the sums deposited in the universal service account and supervise its disbursement to eligible telecommunications companies. The entire collection, administration and disbursement process, and the use of said sums, shall be subject to the audits by the Comptroller of Puerto Rico.
(10) The Board shall review the amount of the obligation that each telecommunications company has with the universal service fund, annually, and when fixing it, shall take into consideration the recommendations, if any, of the administrator. The decisions that the Board adopts to such effects shall be based on two principal factors:
(A) The public interest in extending and maintaining a modern telecommunications system available to all the geographic and social sectors of Puerto Rico, and
(B) the need to ensure that the criteria used to establish the contribution of the companies to the fund are viable and are uniformly and equitable, applicable, and are not arbitrary or discriminatory.
(11) The funds obtained through the mechanism to contribute to universal services shall be used efficiently in order to expedite the offer of high quality services at the best price possible.
(d) Lifeline Service Automatic Subscription Program.—
(1) Every telephone service user who is a beneficiary of any of the eligible assistance programs established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) shall be subject to automatic subscription to the Lifeline Service contemplated in the Universal Service Regulations adopted by the Board. The Board shall establish the eligibility criteria following the norms established by the FCC.
(2) The public agencies that administer assistance or subsidy programs shall provide to the eligible telecommunications companies, on a monthly basis, electronic updates of the candidates that qualify in their respective programs. The monthly updates shall only include new eligible clients and those that were dropped. The term “dropped” refers to the person or persons that ceased to be eligible or stopped receiving benefits under the public assistance or subsidy programs administered by them.
(3) The Board shall prepare forms for requesting automatic subscription and shall remit them to the public agencies that administer assistance or subsidy programs that make the clients eligible for the Lifeline Service Program. The pertinent agency shall provide to the eligible client the application prepared by the Board on which said client may request to be automatically registered in the Lifeline Program, through a self-certification of the eligible client that states, under penalty of prejudice and permanent ineligibility, that neither he/she, nor any residing member of the family unit have been receiving the benefit of the subsidy provided by said program and for which they are filing this application. The subsidy shall only be granted for a single wireless telephone line or to a single wireless service for the family unit, at the discretion of the client. The form provided shall also provide the client the option of being excluded from the automatic registration.
(4) The eligible telecommunications companies shall implement the Lifeline Service Automatic Registration Program within one hundred and eighty (180) days following the approval of this act.
(5) On or before March 31 of each year, the eligible telecommunications companies shall file a report before the Board of the total number of eligible clients that were registered in the Lifeline Service Automatic Registration Program during the preceding calendar year.
(6) It shall be the obligation of the eligible telecommunications companies to establish a confidentiality agreement with the public agencies prior to receiving the register of clients eligible to the assistance or subsidy programs administered by said agencies. Said agreement shall establish that the client information furnished by the public agencies to the eligible telecommunications companies shall be for the sole purpose of providing the subsidies of the “Lifeline” and “Link-Up” Service programs, and disclosure of the information shall be limited to those persons related to the implementation of said Program.
(7) Upon receipt of a notice from the public agencies that administer the assistance or subsidy programs that render their subscribers eligible for the subsidy programs of the Fund of the Universal Service of Puerto Rico and the Federal Universal Service Fund stating that a user is no longer eligible for said programs, the eligible telecommunications company shall notify the user, by mail, that his/her subsidy for the Lifeline Service Program, and the “Lifeline” and “Link-Up” programs shall be discontinued fifteen (15) days from the date of the notice, unless the user notifies the eligible telecommunications company that a mistake has been made. If the user notifies the eligible telecommunications company that a mistake has been made, the subscription to the Lifeline Service shall continue for thirty (30) days to allow the user sufficient time to correct the records and to obtain a confirmation of eligibility from the public agency. If the user has not obtained a confirmation of eligibility from the corresponding public agency at the end of the thirty (30) -day period, the Lifeline Service may be discontinued and the billing shall continue at the applicable rates.
(8) The Telecommunications Regulatory Board shall amend the regulations in effect one hundred and eighty (180) days from the approval of this act, in order to implement its provisions. These regulations shall contain, among other things, the penalties to be established in those cases in which the citizens make an attempt to receive benefits to which they are not entitled, through false certifications and similar fraud schemes. Said regulations shall also fix penalties for the irresponsible conduct of the eligible telecommunications companies that include subscribers that are not eligible in the Program and that continually incur fraud patterns that entail up to the partial or permanent suspension of the operations in Puerto Rico. Furthermore, the public agencies are hereby empowered to draft regulations or to amend any existing regulations within the following one hundred and eighty (180) days [after] the approval of this act, to the effect of establishing a procedure through which the information requested is furnished without breaching the confidentiality of the participants.
History —Sept. 12, 1996, No. 213, § III-6, renumbered as § III-7 on Sept. 2, 1999, No. 302, § 2; Oct. 9, 2002, No. 242, § 1; Dec. 14, 2007, No. 202, §§ 1—7.