(a) A charge that is expressed in dollars and cents per line per month shall be assessed upon end users that subscribe to local exchange telephone service or Centrex service to the extent they do not pay carrier common line charges. A charge that is expressed in dollars and cents per line per month shall be assessed upon providers of public telephones. Such charge shall be assessed for each line between the premises of an end user, or public telephone location, and a Class 5 office that is or may be used for local exchange service transmissions.

(b) [Reserved]

(c) The charge for each subscriber line associated with a public telephone shall be equal to the monthly charge computed in accordance with paragraph (k) of this section.

(d)

(1) Beginning July 1, 2000, in a study area that does not have deaveraged End User Common Line Charges, the maximum monthly charge for each primary residential or single-line business local exchange service subscriber line shall be the lesser of:

(i) The Average Price Cap CMT Revenue per Line month as defined in §61.3(d) of this chapter; or

(ii) The following:

(A) On July 1, 2000, $4.35.

(B) On July 1, 2001, $5.00.

(C) On July 1, 2002, $6.00.

(D) On July 1, 2003, $6.50.

(2) In the event that GDP-PI exceeds 6.5% or is less than 0%, the maximum monthly charge in paragraph (d)(1)(ii) of this section and the cap will be adjusted pursuant to §61.45(b)(1)(iii) of this chapter.

(e)

(1) Beginning July 1, 2000, in a study area that does not have deaveraged End User Common Line Charges, the maximum monthly charge for each non-primary residential local exchange service subscriber line shall be the lesser of:

(i) $7.00; or

(ii) The greater of:

(A) The rate as of June 30, 2000 less reductions needed to ensure over recovery of CMT Revenues does not occur; or

(B) The Average Price Cap CMT Revenue per Line month as defined in §61.3(d) of this chapter.

(2) In the event that GDP-PI is greater than 6.5% or is less than 0%, the maximum monthly charge in paragraph (e)(1)(i) of this section and the cap will be adjusted pursuant to §61.45(b)(1)(iii) of this chapter.

(3) Where the local exchange carrier provides a residential line to another carrier so that the other carrier may resell that residential line to a residence that already receives a primary residential line, the local exchange carrier may collect the non-primary residential charge described in paragraph (e) of this section from the other carrier.

(f) The charge for each primary residential local exchange service subscriber line shall be the same as the charge for each single-line business local exchange service subscriber line.

(g) A line shall be deemed to be a residential subscriber line if the subscriber pays a rate for such line that is described as a residential rate in the local exchange service tariff.

(h) Effective July 1, 1999, only one of the residential subscriber lines a price cap local exchange carrier provides to a location shall be deemed to be a primary residential line.

(1) Effective July 1, 1999, for purposes of §69.152(h) of this chapter, “residential subscriber line” includes residential lines that a price cap local exchange carrier provides to a competitive local exchange carrier that resells the line and on which the price cap local exchange carrier may assess access charges.

(2) Effective July 1, 1999, if a customer subscribes to residential lines from a price cap local exchange carrier and at least one reseller of the price cap local exchange carrier's lines, the line sold by the price cap local exchange carrier shall be the primary line, except that if a resold price cap LEC line is already the primary line, the resold line will remain the primary line should a price cap local exchange carrier subsequently sell an additional line to that residence.

(i) A line shall be deemed to be a single-line business subscriber line if the subscriber pays a rate that is not described as a residential rate in the local exchange service tariff and does not obtain more than one such line from a particular telephone company.

(j) No charge shall be assessed for any WATS access line.

(k)

(1) Beginning on July 1, 2000, for any study area that does not have deaveraged End User Common Line charges and in the absence of voluntary reductions, the maximum monthly End User Common Line Charge for multi-line business lines will be the lesser of:

(i) $9.20; or

(ii) The greater of:

(A) The rate as of June 30, 2000, less reductions needed to ensure over recovery of CMT Revenues does not occur; or

(B) The Average Price Cap CMT Revenue per Line month as defined in §61.3(d) of this chapter.

(2) In the event that GDP-PI is greater than 6.5% or is less than 0%, the maximum monthly charge in paragraph (k)(1)(i) of this section and the cap will be adjusted pursuant to §61.45(b)(1)(iii) of this chapter.

(l)

(1) Beginning January 1, 1998, local exchange carrier shall assess no more than one End User Common Line charge as calculated under the applicable method under paragraph (e) of this section for Basic Rate Interface integrated services digital network (ISDN) service.

(2) Local exchange carriers shall assess no more than five End User Common Line charges as calculated under paragraph (k) of this section for Primary Rate Interface ISDN service.

(m) In the event the local exchange carrier charges less than the maximum End User Common Line charge for any subscriber lines, the local exchange carrier may not recover the difference between the amount collected and the maximum from carrier common line charges or PICCs.

(n)-(p) [Reserved]

(q) End User Common Line Charge De-Averaging. Beginning on July 1, 2000, local exchange carriers may geographically deaverage End User Common Line charges subject to the following conditions:

(1) In order for a price cap local exchange carrier to be allowed to de-average End User Common Line charges within a study area, the price cap local exchange carrier must have state Commission approved geographically deaveraged rates for UNE loops within that study area. Except where a LEC geographically deaverages through voluntary reductions, before a price cap local exchange carrier may geographically deaverage its End User Common Line rates, its Originating and Terminating CCL and Multi-line Business PICC rates in that study area must equal $0.00.

(2) All geographic deaveraging of End User Common Line charges by customer class within a study area must be according to the state commission-approved UNE loop zone. Solely for the purposes of determining interstate subscriber line charges and the interstate access universal service support described in §§54.806 and 54.807 of this chapter, a price cap local exchange carrier may not have more than four geographic End User Common Line Charge/Universal Service zones absent a review by the Commission. Where a price cap local exchange carrier has more than four state-created UNE zones and the Commission has not approved use of additional zones, the price cap local exchange carrier will determine, at its discretion, which state-created UNE zones to consolidate so that it has no more than four zones for the purpose of determining interstate subscriber line charges and interstate access universal service support.

(3) Within a given zone, Multi-line Business End User Common Line rates cannot fall below Primary Residential and Single-Line Business or Non-Primary Residential End User Common Line charges. Non-Primary End User Common Line charges cannot fall below Primary Residential and Single-Line Business charges.

(4) For any given class of customer in any given zone, the Zone deaveraged End User Common Line Charge in that zone must be greater than or equal to the Zone deaveraged End User Common Line charge in the zone with the next lower Zone Average Revenue Per Line.

(5) The sum of all revenues per month that would be generated from all deaveraged End User Common Line charges in all zones within a study area plus Interstate Access Universal Service Support per Line month (as defined in §54.807 of this chapter) for the applicable customer classes and zones receiving such support multiplied by corresponding base period lines, divided by the number of base period lines in that study area cannot exceed Average Price Cap CMT Revenue per Line month as defined in §61.3(d) of this chapter for that study area. In addition, the sum of revenues per month that would be generated from all deaveraged End User Common Line charges in all End User Common Line charge deaveraging zones within a study area plus revenues per month from all End User Common Line charge, multi-line business PICC and CCL charges from study areas within that study area that have not geographically deaveraged End User Common Line charges plus the sum of all Interstate Access Universal Service Support per Line month (as defined in §54.807 of this chapter) for the applicable customer classes and zones receiving such support, multiplied by the corresponding base period lines for the applicable customer classes and zones within the study area, divided by the number of total base period lines in the study area cannot exceed Average Price Cap CMT Revenue per Line month as defined in §61.3(d) of this chapter for the study area.

(6) Maximum charge. The maximum zone deaveraged End User Common Line Charge that may be charged in any zone is the applicable cap specified in §69.152(d)(1), §69.152(e)(1)(i) or §69.152 (k)(1)(i) Zone Average Revenue Per Line is the Average Price Cap CMT Revenue per Line month allocated to a particular state-defined zone used for deaveraging of UNE loop prices. The zone average revenue per line is computed pursuant to §61.3 (zz) of this chapter.

(7) Minimum charge. Except where a local exchange carrier chooses to lower the deaveraged End User Common Line charge through voluntary reductions, the minimum zone deaveraged End User Common Line charge in any zone in a study area is at least the Minimum End User Common Line charge. Minimum End User Common Line charge is Zone Average Revenue Per Line for the zone with the lowest Zone Average Revenue Per Line in that study area plus an amount per line calculated to recover the difference between Interstate Access Universal Service Support Per Line (as defined in §54.807 of this chapter) multiplied by base period lines for the applicable customer class and zones receiving such support and Study Area Above Benchmark Revenues, first from Zone 1 until the End User Common Line charges in Zone 1 equal the End User Common Line charges in Zone 2, and then from lines in Zones 1 and 2 equally until the End User Common Line charges in those Zones reach Zone 3 (with all End User Common Line charges subject to the applicable residential and multi-line business lines nominal caps).

(i) For the purposes of this part, “Study Area Above Benchmark Revenues” is the sum of all Zone Above Benchmark Revenues.

(ii) For the purposes of this part, “Zone Above Benchmark Revenues” is calculated as follows:

Zone Above Benchmark Revenues is the sum of Zone Above Benchmark Revenues for Residential and Single-line Business lines and Zone Above Benchmark Revenues for Multi-line Business lines. Zone Above Benchmark Revenues for Residential and Single-line Business lines is, within each zone, (Zone Average Revenue Per Line minus $7.00) multiplied by all eligible telecommunications carrier Base Period Residential and Single-line Business lines times 12. If negative, the Zone Above Benchmark Revenues for Residential and Single-line Business lines for the zone is zero. Zone Above Benchmark Revenues for Multi-line Business lines is, within each zone,

(Zone Average Revenue Per Line minus $9.20) multiplied by all eligible telecommunications carrier zone Base Period Multi-line Business lines times 12. If negative, the Zone Above Benchmark Revenues for Multi-line Business lines for the zone is zero.

(8) Voluntary Reductions. A “Voluntary Reduction” is one in which the local exchange carrier reduces prices other than through offset of net increases in End User Common Line charge revenues or Interstate Access Universal Service support received pursuant to §54.807 of this chapter, or through increases in other zone deaveraged End User Common Line charges.

[65 FR 38701, June 21, 2000; 65 FR 57744, Sept. 26, 2000]