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Mailed Date: March 8, 2007

PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Telecommunications Division

RESOLUTION T-17078

Public Programs Branch

March 1, 2007

R E S O L U T I O N

Resolution T-17078. Approval of the California High Cost Fund-B Administrative Committee Fund Surcharge Rate of 1.30% Effective April 1, 2007.

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Summary

This resolution adopts a surcharge rate of 1.30% for the California High Cost Fund-B (CHCF-B) Administrative Committee (AC) Fund effective April 1, 2007 and thereafter, until further revised by the Commission. All regulated telecommunications carriers shall assess a CHCF- B surcharge rate of 1.30% on their end-user's bills rendered for intrastate telecommunications services on April 1, 2007, and thereafter.

Background

In Decision (D) 96-10-066, the Commission established the CHCF-B program to provide universal service subsidy support in the high cost areas of AT&T California, Verizon of California, SureWest Telephone, Citizens Telecommunications Company of California, and new carriers that become Carriers of Last Resort (COLR).

In October 1999, PU Code § 270-281 were codified as a result of the enactment of Senate Bill (SB) 669 (Stats. 1999, Chapter 677). § 270(b) requires that the monies in the CHCF-B and five other funds may only be expended pursuant to § 270-281 and upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act.

For Fiscal Year (FY) 2006-07, the State Budget appropriated the amount of $434.135 million for the California High Cost Fund-B Administrative Committee Fund (Chapters 47 & 48, Stats 2006.

Discussion

In this Resolution, the Telecommunications Division (TD) recommends a CHCF-B AC Fund surcharge rate of 1.30% effective April 1, 2007 and thereafter, until further revised by the Commission.

Appendix A shows the actual fiscal year 2005-06, and forecasted CHCF-B FY 2006-07 and FY 2007-08 results of operations. In addition the new surcharge rate is based on the June 30, 2006 ending cash balance as reflected in the Certification of Year-end financial reports submitted to the State Controller's Office on August 11, 2006.

All certificated telecommunications carriers shall assess a revised CHCF- B rate of 1.30% on their end-user's bills rendered for intrastate telecommunications services on April 1, 2007 and thereafter.

Advice Letter Filing

In accordance with Resolution T-16901, dated December 2, 2004, AT&T (formally SBC) shall file an Advice Letter on or before March 22, 2007, modifying the CHCF- B surcharge from 2.00% to 1.30% to take effect on April 1, 2007 and thereafter, until further revised by the Commission.

To maximize administrative efficiency, AT&T is allowed to file simultaneously on or before March 22, 2007 the revised tariff schedules in compliance with resolutions revising various public program surcharges effective on April 1, 2007 and thereafter in accordance with the provisions of G.O. 96, as modified by first, second, and third interim orders. AT&T is not required to inform competing carriers of tariff changes which comply with this resolution.

Comments

In compliance with PU Code § 311 (g), a notice letter was e-mailed on January 30, 2007 to all telecommunications carriers, the CHCF-B AC, and the parties on the service list of R.06-06-028 informing these parties that this draft resolution is available at the Commission's website http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/static/documents/index.htm and is available for public comments. In addition, TD informed these parties of the availability of the conformed resolution at the same website.

TD did not receive any comments on this resolution.

Findings

THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that:

This Resolution is effective today.

I hereby certify that the Public Utilities Commission at its regular meeting on March 1, 2007 adopted this Resolution. The following Commissioners approved it:

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