Notice Seeking Comments on the TRS Surcharge Rate
The REGULATORY COMMISSION OF ALASKA (Commission) seeks comments on whether or not the Universal Access Surcharge, also known as the Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) surcharge, should be adjusted and the amount of such adjustment. The Commission also seeks comment on whether it should adopt a target balance for the TRS surplus revenue account and what the target balance should be, if adopted. Docket No. U-15-121 was opened to address this matter.
In general, TRS is a service that allows deaf, hard-of-hearing, or speech-impaired persons and all other subscribers to communicate with each other. TRS services are funded pursuant to a surcharge collected by local exchange carriers on each local exchange service access line. The TRS provider is paid according to its monthly revenue requirement and any excess collections are deposited in the TRS surplus revenue account. The current TRS surcharge rates are $0.01 per line per month for residential and single-line business access lines, and $0.02 per line per month for multi-line business access lines. At these rates, the TRS surplus revenue balance will decline below a manageable level before the conclusion of Docket U-15-121. The Commission is required to modify the TRS surcharge as necessary to avoid either insufficient or excessive amounts of money in the TRS surplus revenue account. The Commission proposes to modify the TRS surcharge by adopting an interim monthly rate of $0.10 per residential and single-line business subscriber and $0.20 per multi-line business subscriber for a period of approximately six months.
Further, the Commission proposes adopting a target balance of $300,000 to manage the TRS surplus revenue account. Under the proposed interim TRS surcharge rates, once that target balance has been reached, the Commission will propose to adjust the rates which will yield collections approximately equal to the monthly TRS revenue requirement.
You may obtain more information about this filing by contacting Jess Manaois, Communications Common Carrier Specialist, at the Commission’s office at 701 West 8th Avenue, Suite 300, Anchorage, AK 99501; phone: (907) 276-6222. Additional information is available at the Commission’s website at http://rca.alaska.gov by typing Docket “U-15-121” in the Find a Matter search box.
To comment on this filing, please file your comments by 5:00 p.m., December 7, 2015, at the Commission address given above or via our website at:
https://rca.alaska.gov/RCAWeb/WhatsNew/PublicNoticesComments.aspx.
Please reference Docket U-15-121 in your comments. Individuals or groups of people with disabilities, who require special accommodations, auxiliary aids or service, or alternative communication formats, please contact Joyce McGowan at (907) 276-6222, toll-free at 1-800-390-2782, or TTY (907) 276-4533, or send a request via electronic mail to rca.mail@alaska.gov by November 27, 2015.
DATED at Anchorage, Alaska this 6th day of November 2015.
REGULATORY COMMISSION OF ALASKA
T.W. Patch
Chairman