Pay Telephone Reclassification and Compensation Provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996

On June 4, 1996, the Commission adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (``NPRM'') [61 FR 33074, June 4, 1996] to implement Section 276 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. On September 20, 1996, the Commission adopted and released a Report and Order in CC Docket No. 96-128 [61 FR 52307, October 7, 1996]. The Errata makes certain technical and typographical corrections to the Report and Order. The full text of the Errata and Report and Order are available for inspection and copying during normal business hours in the FCC Reference Center, Room 239, 1919 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. The complete text of the Report and Order may also be purchased from the Commission's duplicating contractor, international Transcription Services, 2100 M Street, N.W., Suite 140, Washington, D.C. 20037, (202) 857-3800. The Report and Order contains new or modified information collections subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). It has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review under the PRA. OMB, the general public, and other federal agencies are invited to comment on the new or modified information collections contained in this proceeding. Parties must file any petitions for reconsideration of the Report and Order within 30 days from release of that document. The Commission waives the requirements of Section 1.4 of its rules to establish this new date of public notice in light of the deadline established in the 1996 Act to complete this proceeding. Parties may file oppositions to the petitions for reconsideration pursuant to Section 1.106(g) of the rules, except that oppositions to the petitions must be filed within seven (7) days after the date for filing the petitions for reconsideration. The Commission will not issue a separate notice of any petitions for reconsideration; the Report and Order serves as notice to all interested parties of the due dates for petitions and oppositions. In addition, the Commission waives Section 1.106(h) of the rules and will not accept reply comments in response to oppositions. The Commission concludes that these actions are necessary to complete all Commission action in this proceeding, which involves issues concerning the expedited implementation of the 1996 Act, by the statutory deadline of November 8, 1996. The Commission will consider all relevant and timely petitions and oppositions before final action is taken in this proceeding. Petitions for reconsideration must comply with Sections 1.106 and 1.49 and all other applicable sections of the Commission's rules. Petitions also must clearly identify the specific portion of the Report and Order for which relief is sought. If a portion of a party's arguments does not fall under a particular topic listed in the outline of the Report and Order, such arguments should be included in a clearly labeled section at the beginning or end of the filing. Parties may not file more than a total of ten (10) pages of ex parte submissions, excluding cover letters. This 10 page limit does not include: (1) written ex parte filings made solely to disclose an oral ex parte contact; (2) written material submitted at the time of an oral presentation to Commission staff that provides a brief outline of the presentation; or (3) written material filed in response to direct requests from Commission staff. Ex parte filings in excess of this limit will not be considered as part of the record in this proceeding. To file a petition for reconsideration in this proceeding parties must file an original and ten copies of all petitions and oppositions. Petitions and oppositions should be sent to the Office of the Secretary, Federal Communications Commission, Washington, DC 20554. If parties want each Commissioner to have a personal copy of their documents, an original plus fourteen copies must be filed. In addition, participants should submit two additional copies directly to the Common Carrier Bureau, Enforcement Division, Room 6008, 2025 M Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20554. The petitions and oppositions will be available for public inspection during regular business hours in the Dockets Reference Room (Room 230) of the Federal Communications Commission, 1919 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20554. Copies of the petition and any subsequently filed documents in this

matter may be obtained from ITS, Inc., 2100 M Street, NW, Suite 140, Washington, DC 20037, (202) 857-3800.

Ordering Clauses

1. Section 64.703 is amended as set forth below effective December 16, 1996, and Sec. 64.1301, the heading of Subpart M of Part 64, and the Attachment, are amended as set forth below effective November 6, 1996.

List of Subjects

47 CFR Part 64

Communications common carriers, Payphone compensation, Operator service access, Telephone.

Federal Communications Commission. Mary Beth Richards, Deputy Chief, Common Carrier Bureau.

Rule Changes

Part 64 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations is amended as follows:

PART 64--MISCELLANEOUS RULES RELATING TO COMMON CARRIERS

1. Effective December 16, 1996, Section 64.703 is amended by removing ``67.703'' in the section heading and adding in its place ``64.703.'' 2. Effective November 6, 1996, the heading of Subpart M of Part 64 is revised to read as follows:

Subpart M--Provision of Payphone Service

3. Effective November 6, 1996, Section 64.1301 is amended by revising the section heading; and by revising paragraphs (a), (b) and (d) to read as follows:

Sec. 64.1301 Payphone compensation.

(a) Each payphone service provider eligible to receive compensation shall be paid $45.85 per payphone per month for originating access code and toll-free calls. (b) This compensation shall be paid by interexchange carriers (IXCs) that earn annual toll revenues in excess of $100 million, as reported in the FCC staff report entitled ``Long Distance Market Shares.'' Each individual IXC's compensation obligation shall be set in accordance with its relative share of toll revenues among IXCs required to pay compensation. For example, if total toll revenues of IXCs required to pay compensation is $50 billion, and one of these IXCs had $5 billion of total toll revenues, the IXC must pay $4.585 per payphone per month. * * * * * (d) IXCs obligated to pay compensation and payphone service providers are responsible for establishing their own billing or payment arrangements. * * * * * 4. The Attachment--Interim Compensation Obligations--is revised to read as follows: This Attachment will not be published in the Code of Federal Regulations.

Attachment--Interim Compensation Obligations ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1995 total toll services Percent of Amount per Company revenues (in total toll phone per millions) revenues month ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AT&T COMPANIES: AT&T COMMUNICATIONS, INC..................................... $38,069 56.69 $25.9923406 ALASCOM, INC................................................. 325 0.48 0.2219000 MCI TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP...................................... 12,924 19.25 8.8241091 SPRINT COMMUNICATIONS CO......................................... 7,277 10.84 4.9685115 LDDS WORLDCOM.................................................... 3,640 5.42 2.4852799 FRONTIER COMPANIES: ALLNET COMM. SVCS. dba FRONTIER COMM. SVCS................... 827 1.23 0.5646501 FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONS INT'L, INC........................... 309 0.46 0.2109757 FRONTIER COMM. OF THE NORTH CENTRAL REGION................... 133 0.20 0.0908083 FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONS OF THE WEST, INC..................... 127 0.19 0.0867117 CABLE & WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, INC............................. 700 1.04 0.4779384 LCI INTERNATIONAL TELECOM CORP................................... 671 1.00 0.4581381 EXCEL TELECOMMUNICATIONS, INC.................................... 363 0.54 0.2478452 TELCO COMMUNICATIONS GROUP, INC.................................. 215 0.32 0.1467954 MIDCOM COMMUNICATIONS, INC....................................... 204 0.30 0.1392849 TEL-SAVE, INC.................................................... 180 0.27 0.1228985 U.S. LONG DISTANCE, INC.......................................... 155 0.23 0.1058292 VARTEC TELECOM, INC.............................................. 125 0.19 0.0853461 GE CAPITAL COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES CORP.......................... 120 0.18 0.0819323 GENERAL COMMUNICATION, INC....................................... 120 0.18 0.0819323 MFS INTELENET, INC............................................... 118 0.18 0.0805668 BUSINESS TELECOM, INC............................................ 115 0.17 0.0785185 COMMUNICATION TELESYSTEM INT'L................................... 115 0.17 0.0785185 ONCOR COMMUNICATIONS, INC........................................ 111 0.17 0.0757874 THE FURST GROUP, INC............................................. 109 0.16 0.0744218 AMERICAN NETWORK EXCHANGE, INC................................... 101 0.15 0.0689597 ---------------------------------------------- TOTAL...................................................... 67,153 100.00 45.85 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[FR Doc. 96-26901 Filed 10-17-96; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6712-01-P