Ariz. Commission Could Soon End State USF Payments to Only Recipient

Frontier Communications would no longer receive Arizona Universal Service Fund (AUSF) subsidies under a proposed settlement in a ratemaking docket at the Arizona Corporation Commission. Frontier and ACC staff filed the pact Friday in docket T-03214A-23-0250. Frontier is the only company in the state receiving this high-cost support. If the proposal is approved, Frontier will forgo collecting any further AUSF funding as well as about $104,000 it's currently owed. In addition, the agreement would adjust Frontier basic service rates that were last revised in 1989. It would designate certain basic telecom services as competitive and deregulate other tariffed intrastate telecom services. Frontier would offer the basic services through a price-cap rate structure. The agreement said "appropriate ACC oversight of Frontier's regulated services” will continue. In March, Arizona commissioners refused hiking monthly AUSF surcharges because they said they wanted to address the issue in the Frontier ratemaking docket.