Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, Forward-Looking Mechanism for High Cost Support for Non-Rural Local Exchange Carriers

In this Order, we select a platform for the federal mechanism to estimate non-rural carriers' forward-looking cost to provide the supported services. The model platform we adopt combines the best elements from each of the three models currently in the record. The model platform we adopt will allow the Commission to estimate the cost of building a telephone network to serve subscribers in their actual geographic locations, to the extent known. To the extent that telephone companies cannot supply the actual geographic location of the customer, the model platform assumes that those customers are located near roads. The model also allows the Commission to adjust engineering assumptions to reflect any evolution in the definition of supported services, and to assure that the model assumes a network architecture that will not impede rural Americans' ability to use the internet and other advanced telecommunications and information services. As such, we believe the federal model platform we adopt will serve as a solid foundation for further decisions that will determine the amount of universal service support to be provided to non-rural eligible telecommunications carriers.