Alaska Administrative Code
Title 3 - Commerce, Community, and Economic Development
Part 7 - Regulatory Commission of Alaska
Chapter 51 - Telecommunications Relay Services
Article 1 - Criteria for the Provision of Telecommunications Relay Service for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Speech Impaired
3 AAC 51.040 - Funding of telecommunications relay service
Current through February 27, 2024
(a) The commission will establish a TRS surcharge by order and will consider the following criteria:
(b) The commission will modify the surcharge whenever necessary to avoid insufficient or excessive money in the surplus revenue account.
(c) After the commission determines the surcharge, each local exchange carrier shall submit to the commission a compliance tariff filing that includes the surcharge using the procedures set out in 3 AAC 48.220 and 3 AAC 48.270.
(d) repealed 5/16/2020.
(e) Each telecommunications carrier shall list the surcharge as a separate line item on bills for service and entitle it "Universal Access Surcharge."
(f) Each telecommunications carrier shall collect the surcharge for each voice line from subscribers of telecommunications service.
(g) The TRS provider shall retain as compensation for services an amount equal to its authorized monthly revenue requirement.
(h) If the TRS provider collects an amount in excess of its monthly revenue requirement, the TRS provider shall hold that excess amount in a low-risk interest bearing account and entitle it the "surplus revenue account".
(i) The TRS provider may draw from the surplus revenue account in any month in which an underrecovery of surcharge revenue occurs. An underrecovery means that the total surcharge collections from local exchange carriers for a given month is less than the TRS provider's revenue requirement for that month. The amount drawn from the surplus revenue account may not exceed the amount of the underrecovery. The amount of the underrecovery is calculated as follows:
UNDERRECOVERY = MONTHLY REVENUE REQUIREMENT - MONTHLY
SURCHARGE COLLECTION
(j) If sufficient money is not available in the surplus revenue account to cover the underrecovery in a given month, the TRS provider may assess an interest charge on the unrecovered amount. The interest charge is assessable at the rate of 0.0287 percent per day and collectible by the TRS provider in the next month in which sufficient money is available.
(k) Each telecommunications carrier shall disburse surcharge collections on a monthly basis to the TRS provider in the following manner:
(l) An amount remaining in the surplus revenue account at the termination of a TRS provider's contract must be transferred within 30 days to the succeeding TRS provider.
Authority:AS 42.05.141
AS 42.05.151
AS 42.05.296
AS 42.05.311
AS 42.05.321