Pennsylvania Code › Title 52 - PUBLIC UTILITIES › Part I - Public Utility Commission › Subpart C - Fixed Service Utilities › Chapter 69 - GENERAL ORDERS, POLICY STATEMENTS AND GUIDELINES ON FIXED UTILITIES › COMPUTATION OF SECTION 510 ASSESSMENTS FOR JURISDICTIONALLY-MIXED TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES-STATEMENT OF POLICY › Section 69.3701 - Computation of Section 510 Annual Fiscal Assessments Related to Revenue from Jurisdictionally-Mixed Telecommunications Services

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
(a) This policy
					 statement provides guidance to all jurisdictional telecommunications public
					 utilities in complying with their statutory obligations under section 510 of
					 the Public Utility Code,
					 66 Pa.C.S. §
												510
					 (relating to assessment for regulatory expenses upon public
					 utilities).
(b) All
					 telecommunications carriers holding Certificates of Public Convenience (CPC)
					 issued under Chapter 11 of the Public Utility Code (Code),
					 66 Pa.C.S. §
												§
												1101-1103 (relating to organization of public
					 utilities and beginning of service; enumeration of acts requiring certificate;
					 and procedure to obtain certificates of public convenience), are public
					 utilities subject to the Commission's authority under Section 510 of the Code,
					 66 Pa.C.S. §
												510 to
					 impose annual fiscal assessments upon these carriers to cover their "reasonable
					 share" of the costs of administering the Code.
(c) Section 510(b) of the Code requires every
					 public utility holding a CPC from the Commission to file, on March 31 of each
					 year, a statement, under oath, showing its gross intrastate operating revenues
					 for the preceding calendar year and to pay to the Commission its proportionate
					 share of the amount assessed to each utility group based on its total gross
					 intrastate operating revenues.
(d)
					 All jurisdictional telecommunications public utilities holding
					 Commission-issued CPCs are obligated by section 510 of the Code to file annual
					 fiscal assessment reports with the Commission reporting their gross intrastate
					 operating revenues and to pay to the Commission their proportionate share of
					 the amount assessed to the telecommunications utility group based on each
					 carrier's total gross intrastate operating revenues.
(e) All jurisdictional telecommunications
					 public utilities holding Commission-issued CPCs in Pennsylvania provide
					 jurisdictionally mixed-use telecommunications services.
(f) Some jurisdictional telecommunications
					 public utilities in Pennsylvania that provide jurisdictionally mixed-use
					 telecommunications services have reported zero gross intrastate operating
					 revenues to the Commission for section 510 annual fiscal assessment purposes
					 for their jurisdictionally mixed-use services.
(g) As their legal basis for reporting zero
					 gross intrastate operating revenues related to their jurisdictionally mixed-use
					 services, a majority have referred to the Federal Communications Commission's
					 ten percent contamination rule to justify reporting zero gross intrastate
					 operating revenues to the Commission.
(h) The Federal Communications Commission's
					 ten percent contamination rule is set forth at
					 47 CFR
					 36.154 (relating to exchange line cable and
					 wire facilities (C&WF)-Category 1-apportionment procedures) and is an
					 administrative jurisdictional separations rule that states that the costs and
					 revenues of a jurisdictionally mixed-use line are directly assigned to the
					 interstate jurisdiction if the mixed-use services carry interstate traffic in a
					 proportion greater than ten percent.
(i) The Federal Communications Commission's
					 ten percent contamination rule does not preempt or otherwise preclude the
					 obligation of jurisdictional telecommunications public utilities to report to
					 the Commission's fiscal office their de facto gross intrastate operating
					 revenues related to providing jurisdictionally mixed-use telecommunications
					 services, without regard to any intrastate revenues deemed to be interstate
					 pursuant to the ten percent contamination rule.
(j) De facto gross intrastate operating
					 revenues are those gross intrastate operating revenues that are actually
					 received for all telecommunications services and traffic between points that
					 are both located within this Commonwealth, including the traffic traversing a
					 special access circuit that is deemed interstate by the ten percent rule set
					 forth in 47 CFR
					 36.154.
(k) The jurisdictional telecommunications
					 carriers may submit to the Commission's fiscal office supporting information
					 (such as traffic studies, tax returns, jurisdictional allocation formulas and
					 factors, books of account, reports, etc.) on which the carrier bases its
					 revenue determination, so that the fiscal office can ascertain the carrier's de
					 facto gross intrastate operating revenues and compute an accurate assessment in
					 accordance with the metrics and requirements of section 510 of the
					 Code.