(a)The Public Service Commission shall establish a Universal Service Trust Fund, and determine those services which shall constitute universal service in the District of Columbia, the costs of providing universal service, and the amount of subsidy needed to maintain the Universal Service Trust Fund. Any subsidy necessary to support universal service shall be separately funded out of the Universal Service Trust Fund, and administered by a Universal Service Trust Fund administrator named by the Public Service Commission.
(1)Upon an annual determination by the Public Service Commission of the amount needed to support a universal service subsidy, the PSC shall bill and collect from all local exchange carriers (“LEC”) and Voice Over Internet Protocol Service providers operating in the Dist
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(a) The Public Service Commission shall establish a Universal Service Trust Fund, and determine those services which shall constitute universal service in the District of Columbia, the costs of providing universal service, and the amount of subsidy needed to maintain the Universal Service Trust Fund. Any subsidy necessary to support universal service shall be separately funded out of the Universal Service Trust Fund, and administered by a Universal Service Trust Fund administrator named by the Public Service Commission.
(1) Upon an annual determination by the Public Service Commission of the amount needed to support a universal service subsidy, the PSC shall bill and collect from all local exchange carriers (“LEC”) and Voice Over Internet Protocol Service providers operating in the District at any time during the previous year an amount representing each carrier’s share of the total universal service subsidy. To the extent permitted by federal law and regulation, the determination of each LEC’s share and Voice Over Internet Protocol Service provider’s share shall be in proportion to each LEC’s and Voice Over Internet Protocol Service provider’s total revenues for local telecommunications or telecommunications services derived from end users in the District during the previous year.
(2) The Commission may exempt from the requirements of this subsection any LEC or Voice Over Internet Protocol Service provider whose share of the total universal service subsidy the Public Service Commission determines to be de minimis.
(c) There shall be no fiscal year limitation on the funds in the Universal Service Trust Fund, and any funds unspent in one fiscal year may be used to offset the amounts required to be contributed by local exchange carriers to the fund in the next fiscal year.
(d) The universal service subsidy derived from the Universal Service Trust Fund shall be available for eligible customers regardless of the local exchange carrier which the eligible customers choose to use.