(a) Pending the development of techniques accurately to measure usage of exchange facilities that are interconnected by users with means of interstate or foreign telecommunications, a surcharge that is expressed in dollars and cents per line termination per month shall be assessed upon users that subscribe to private line services or WATS services that are not exempt from assessment pursuant to paragraph (e) of this section.

(b) Except as provided in paragraph (f) of this section, such surcharge shall be computed to reflect a reasonable approximation of the carrier usage charges which, assuming non-premium interconnection, would have been paid for average interstate or foreign usage of common lines, end office facilities, and transport facilities, attributable to each Special Access line termination which is not exempt from assessment pursuant to paragraph (e) of this section.

(c) If the association, carrier or carriers that file the tariff are unable to estimate such average usage for a period ending May 31, 1985, the surcharge for such period shall be twenty-five dollars ($25) per line termination per month. As of June 30, 2000, these rates will remain and be capped at the current levels until June 30, 2005.

(d) A telephone company may propose reasonable and nondiscriminatory end user surcharges, to be filed in its federal access tariffs and to be applied to the use of exchange facilities which are interconected by users with means of interstate or foreign telecommunication which are not provided by the telephone company, and which are not exempt from assessment pursuant to paragraph (e) of this section. Telephone companies which wish to avail themselves of this option must undertake to use reasonable efforts to identify such means of interstate or foreign telecommunication, and to assess end user surcharges in a reasonable and nondiscriminatory manner.

(e) No special access surcharges shall be assessed for any of the following terminations:

(1) The open end termination in a telephone company switch of an FX line, including CCSA and CCSA-equivalent ONALs;

(2) Any termination of an analog channel that is used for radio or television program transmission;

(3) Any termination of a line that is used for telex service;

(4) Any termination of a line that by nature of its operating characteristics could not make use of common lines; and

(5) Any termination of a line that is subject to carrier usage charges pursuant to §69.5.

(6) Any termination of a line that the customer certifies to the exchange carrier is not connected to a PBX or other device capable of interconnecting a local exchange subscriber line with the private line or WATS access line.

(f) The maximum special access surcharge a non-price cap local exchange carrier that elects model-based support pursuant to §54.311 of this chapter or Alaska Plan support pursuant to §54.306 of this chapter may assess is the rate in effect on the last day of the month preceding the month for which model-based support or Alaska Plan support, as applicable, is first provided.

(47 U.S.C. 154 (i) and (j), 201, 202, 203, 205, 218 and 403 and 5 U.S.C. 553)

[48 FR 43019, Sept. 21, 1983, as amended at 49 FR 7829, Mar. 2, 1984; 51 FR 10841, Mar. 31, 1986; 52 FR 8259, Mar. 17, 1987; 65 FR 38701, June 21, 2000; 81 FR 24345, Apr. 25, 2016; 81 FR 69716, Oct. 7, 2016]