The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission denied Cincinnati Bell ...
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission denied Cincinnati Bell a waiver of a universal service rule requiring that its mandatory contributions to the state universal service fund be recovered from its customers by a line-item surcharge on phone bills. That…
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rule was included in a comprehensive state universal service reform compromise reached by all local exchange providers and approved by the commission in 2004. Cincinnati Bell (Case 43476) said only 6,000 of its 500,000 customers are located in Indiana and its contribution to the state fund has been only around $1,000 monthly. It said changing its billing system to accommodate the Indiana passthrough requirement would be inefficient and costly. It sought a waiver allowing it to make its contribution from general revenues without a line-item passthrough. But the commission said the passthrough surcharge was a central issue in the 2004 compromise agreement, which doesn’t provide for waivers of that rule. It said the agreement does allow rural telcos faced with extraordinary circumstances to request a waiver but Cincinnati Bell isn’t a rural telco and even if it was rural it isn’t facing extraordinary circumstances.