Part 54 – Rate-of-Return Carrier Universal Service Reporting Requirements; Waiver of Local Exchange Carrier Study Area Boundary Changes

This submission is being made for a proposed non-substantive change to an existing information collection pursuant to 44 U.S.C. § 3507. This submission seeks to change the filing method of information collected on FCC Forms 507, 508 and 509. The information from the approved forms will now be collected electronically. In order to allow determination of the study areas that are entitled to an expense adjustment, and the wire centers that are entitled to high-cost universal service support, incumbent and competitive telecommunications carriers must provide certain data to the National Exchange Carrier Association or the Universal Service Administrative Company annually. Local telecommunications carriers who want to participate in the federal universal service support program must make certain informational showings to demonstrate eligibility. The data collected on FCC Forms 507, 508, and 509, will include line counts, forecasted cost and revenues, and actual cost and revenue data associated with consumer broadband-only loops necessary for the calculation of universal service high-cost support. In addition, the Commission now requires local exchange carriers seeking a change in study area boundaries to submit a petition for waiver of these boundary changes notwithstanding any prior exemptions from such waiver requests.

The latest form for Part 54 – Rate-of-Return Carrier Universal Service Reporting Requirements; Waiver of Local Exchange Carrier Study Area Boundary Changes expires 2027-10-31 and can be found here.