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PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Communications Division

RESOLUTION T-17290

Consumer Programs Branch

September 2, 2010

R E S O L U T I O N

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SUMMARY

This Resolution adopts a budget of $75.207 million for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011-12 for the California Teleconnect Fund (CTF) Program.

In addition, this resolution sets a cap of $8.299 million as the total CTF discounts available for California Community Colleges for FY 2011-12.

BACKGROUND

The CTF was adopted in Decision (D.) 96-10-066, effective October 25, 1996, to provide discounted rates for a family of telecommunications services for qualifying schools, libraries, government-owned health care providers, and community based organizations (CBOs).

In October 1999, Public Utilities (PU) Code Sections 270-281 were enacted by Senate Bill (SB) 669 (Stats. 1999, Chapter 677). PU Code Sections 270-281 require, among other things, that the money appropriated from each of the funds be used only for the purpose of that fund.

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In May 2006, the Commission opened Rulemaking 06-05-028 to conduct a comprehensive review of the Telecommunications Public Policy Programs, including the CTF. In D.08-06-020, issued on June 12, 2008, the Commission found that the CTF was successfully enhancing universal service goals, and ordered several key changes to the CTF program. These changes included: (1) an expansion of CTF-eligible services, (2) the removal of CTF tariff requirements for all carriers that provide CTF-eligible services on a detariffed or non-regulated basis, and (3) the inclusion of California's Community Colleges, California Telehealth Network participants and non-profit CBOs providing 2-1-1 Information and Referral Services in the CTF program.1 Lastly, in this Decision, the Commission placed a cap of $7.200 million per year, adjusted annually based on Western Consumer Price Index, on total CTF discounts received by California Community Colleges.

On July 9, 2010, the CTF Administrative Committee (CTF-AC) submitted a letter to the Commission's Executive Director seeking approval of a proposed budget of $73.745 million for FY 2011-12. This budget recommendation was filed in accordance with Paragraph 4.1 of the CTF-AC charter. Details of this proposed budget can be found in Appendix A.

The CTF program is funded by a surcharge assessed by wireline and wireless carriers on consumer's intrastate telecommunication services. The current surcharge rate is 0.079%.

NOTICE/PROTESTS

Notice of the CTF-AC's proposed budget for FY 2011-12 was published in the Commission's Daily Calendar on July 12, 2010. The Communications Division (CD) did not receive any protests related to the notice.

DISCUSSION

1. CTF Budget

In this Resolution, the Commission adopts the CTF budget for FY 2011-12 in the amount of $75.207 million.

Appendix A of this resolution shows the FY 2011-12 CTF budget as proposed by CD in August 2010. This budget includes, among other things, sufficient funds to pay for audits, state overhead and committee expenses. Of CD's $75.207 million proposed budget for FY 2011-12, $71.461 million is for payments to carriers providing CTF discounted services; $50,000 for interest payments; $1.400 million for financial, compliance and surcharge remittance audits; $6,000 for banking fees; $34,000 for Advisory Committee expenses; $686,000 for CPUC staff costs; $165,000 for inter-agency costs; $5,000 for programming and maintaining the electronic and monitoring systems; and $1.400 million for outreach.

The majority of the CTF budget will pay for claims, which are filed by carriers, for reimbursement of monthly CTF discounts. To help develop an estimate for the claims expense, CD solicited a forecast of claims for FY 2011-12 from carriers. CD anticipates that total claims expense will increase because of several factors. First, CD approved a total of 1,025 applications during FY 2009-10, and CD believes the program will continue to grow through FY 2011-12. Also, CD expects an increase in total claims expenses due to recent Federal and State initiatives, such as the National Broadband Plan, potential changes to the Universal Services Administrative Company's E-Rate program, the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and the California Advanced Services Fund. CD accounted for these factors in the amount budgeted for carriers' claims.

Fiscal Year 2010-2011 vs. Fiscal Year 2011-12

CD's FY 2011-12 budget recommendation of $75.207 million is $5.300 million (7.6%) greater than the prior fiscal year's budget of $69.907 million (Resolution T-17214). The increase is due to the following reasons:

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CD Proposal vs. CTF-AC Proposal

CD's FY 2011-12 budget recommendation is $1.462 million more than the CTF-AC's proposed budget. The CTF-AC budgeted $70.000 million for carriers' claims, while CD estimates $71.461 million. CD used more up-to-date claims forecasts (provided by CTF participating carriers) as compared to those used by the CTF-AC. Also, CD increased the amount budgeted for Banking Fees, from $5,000 to $6,000, as a result of its use of more up-to-date information.

2. California Community College Cap

Pursuant to D.08-06-020, the Commission raises the cap on total CTF discounts available for eligible California Community Colleges. Based on changes in the Western Consumer Price Index, the California Community College cap will increase by $206,000, to $8.299 million for FY 2011-12.2

In light of the above discussions, CD believes its proposed CTF budget of $75.207 million for FY 2011-12, which includes a budget cap of $8.299 million for California Community Colleges, is appropriate and reasonable. Therefore, CD respectfully recommends that the Commission adopt CD's proposal.

NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY AND COMMENTS

In the past, to comply with PU Code Section 311(g), the Commission had served a hard copy of resolutions regarding CTF budgets to all telecommunications carriers and the parties of record in R. 95-01-020/I95-01-021. To be consistent with the Commission's commitment to utilize the Internet for distributing Commission orders and information, on July 30, 2010, CD e-mailed a notice letter informing telecommunications carriers serving CTF customers, members of the CTF-AC, and the parties of records in R. 95-01-020/I95-01-021 and R.06-05-028 of the availability of this draft resolution as well as the conformed resolution, when adopted by the Commission, on the Commission web-site at www.cpuc.ca.gov.

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The Communications Division did not receive any comments regarding this resolution.

FINDINGS

THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that:

I hereby certify that this Resolution was adopted by the Public Utilities Commission at its regular meeting on September 2, 2010. The following Commissioners approved it:

APPENDIX A

California Teleconnect Fund

Public Programs :: Expense Budget ($000s)

FY 2011-12 :: July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012

A-1

End of Appendix A

1 CBOs providing 2-1-1 Referral and Information Services must be authorized by the Commission through a resolution process to participate in the CTF program.

2 D.08-06-020, Conclusion of Law No. 7 states, "The Commission should limit the participation of community colleges in the CTF program to $7.2 million per year, adjusted annually based on Western-CPI."

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