Because telephones provide a vital link to emergency services, to government services and to surrounding communities, it has been our nation’s policy to promote telephone service to all households since this service began in the 1930s. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which regulates all telecommunications companies, set the Universal Service Fund up in 1997. Congress has mandated that all telephone companies providing interstate service must contribute to the USF. So all long distance, local telephone companies, and cellular companies that provide service between states must contribute a percentage of the total interstate amount they bill to the fund. The amount MTC is required to contribute to the fund continues to increase, can change quarterly, and we recover our cost in the form of this charge, as allowed by the FCC.

‍What is the money used for? The money is used to help schools, libraries, rural health care providers, and telephone companies that operate in difficult-to-serve or high-cost areas by giving them discounts on telecommunications services. The fund supports programs that provide discounted essential service and free service installations to income eligible families. Part of the money also helps keep your local telephone service reasonably priced. It’s less costly for telephone companies to provide service in cities than it is in more remote rural areas that have small populations. The Universal Service Fund is one source that helps make it possible for telephone companies to serve remote areas at affordable rates.
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‍Who determines the amount? FCC sets the amount that each telephone company has to contribute to the Universal Service Fund, and the company passes associated fees along to customers to recover their cost. The money collected from our MTC customers for USF is used to recover the amount we’re required to pay to the Federal Universal Service Fund.

This access charge billed by your local telephone company pays part of the cost to the local telephone company of supplying a phone line into your home or business. It is designed to help local phone companies recover the cost of providing “local loops,” which refers to outside telephone wires, underground conduit, telephone poles, and other equipment and facilities connecting you to the telephone network. It is a charge that is part of the price you pay to your local telephone company. The FCC determines the rate that can be charged by MTC Technologies.

This charge was recently adopted by the FCC as a way to ease the effect of reduced intercarrier revenues and facilitate continued investment in broadband. The FCC caps the maximum price that a company may charge for this. The Access Recovery Charge, or ARC, allows MTC Technologies to recover part of the revenues lost through FCC required reductions to access rates.

A three percent tax applies only to local service billed separately from long distance service.

This charge give access to MTC Technologies’ local network; The FCC sets the minimum rate MTC is allowed to charge.