§61.50. Regulation of business data services offered by rate-of-return carriers electing incentive regulation. — Inbound Citations

(e) A price cap company, or a rate-of-return carrier electing to provide service pursuant to § 61.50 of this chapter, that opts-out of part 32 of this chapter may calculate attachment rates for its poles, ducts, conduits, and rights of way using either part 32 accounting data or GAAP accounting data. A company using GAAP accounting data to compute rates to attach to its poles, ducts, conduits, and rights of way in any of the first twelve years after opting-out must adjust (increase or decrease) its annually computed GAAP-based rates by an Implementation Rate Difference for each of the remaining years in the period. The Implementation Rate Difference means the difference between attachment rates calculated by the carrier under part 32 and under GAAP as of the last full year preceding the carrier's initial opting-out of part 32 USOA accounting requirements.

The revised Uniform System of Accounts (USOA) is a historical financial accounting system which reports the results of operational and financial events in a manner which enables both management and regulators to assess these results within a specified accounting period. The USOA also provides the financial community and others with financial performance results. In order for an accounting system to fulfill these purposes, it must exhibit consistency and stability in financial reporting (including the results published for regulatory purposes). Accordingly, the USOA has been designed to reflect stable, recurring financial data based to the extent regulatory considerations permit upon the consistency of the well-established body of accounting theories and principles commonly referred to as generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The rules of this part, and any other rules or orders that are derivative of or dependent on the rules in this part, do not apply to price cap companies, and rate-of-return telephone companies offering business data services pursuant to § 61.50 of this chapter, that have opted-out of USOA requirements pursuant to the conditions specified by the Commission in § 32.11(g).

(g) Notwithstanding paragraph (a) of this section, a price cap company, or a rate-of-return telephone company offering business data services pursuant to § 61.50 of this chapter, that elects to calculate its pole attachment rates pursuant to § 1.1406(e) of this chapter will not be subject to this Uniform System of Accounts.

(A) Subject to the cap described in paragraph (a)(4)(ii) of this section, an incumbent LEC shall provide a requesting telecommunications carrier with nondiscriminatory access to a DS1 loop on an unbundled basis to any building not served by a wire center with at least 60,000 business lines and at least four fiber-based collocators, but only if that building is located in:

(1) Any county or portion of a county served by a price cap incumbent LEC that is not included on the list of counties that have been deemed competitive pursuant to the competitive market test established under § 69.803 of this chapter; or

(2) Any study area served by a rate-of-return incumbent LEC provided that study area is not included on the list of competitive study areas pursuant to the competitive market test established under § 61.50 of this chapter.

(f) Notwithstanding the requirements of paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section, a telephone company subject to rate-of-return regulation that is affiliated with a price cap local exchange carrier may provide business data services pursuant to § 61.50 without converting other services to price cap regulation.

(a) This section shall apply to price cap local exchange carriers permitted to offer contract-based tariffs under § 1.776 or § 69.805 of this chapter, as well as to the offering of business data services by rate-of-return carriers pursuant to § 61.50.

(c) The maximum allowable rate of return for rates filed by local exchange carrier subject to § 61.50 of this chapter, shall be determined by adding a fixed increment of one and one-half percent to the carriers prescribed rate of return.