Idaho PUC approved stipulated agreement to establish basic struct...
Idaho PUC approved stipulated agreement to establish basic structure for new and expanded state universal service fund to fulfill legislative mandate that all consumers in state, regardless of location, have comparable access to affordable telecom services. Approved agreement (Case…
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GNR-T-00-2) was developed by PUC staff, Idaho Telecom Assn., Citizens Telecom, Century Telephone and TDS Telecom. Qwest didn’t sign on to agreement but also didn’t oppose it. New fund would be available to any eligible telecom provider, unlike current fund that’s restricted to handful of small rural incumbent telcos. Agreement said fund would use FCC Synthesis Model to identify and rank relative high-cost areas into 5 groups and separate process for dividing wire centers in high-cost areas into low-density zones eligible for support and high-density zones that are not. Fund also will require that carriers applying to receive support must reduce basic service rates to offset support received. PUC said other issues such as what lines were eligible for support, fund size, contributions, customer mapping and administrative mechanisms would be deferred until eligible telecom carrier applied for high-cost support.