The Wisconsin Public Service Commission (“PSC”) recently implemented the state’s Act 22 for purposes of assessing the revenue base for state USF contributions.  Act 22 amended the definition of “telecommunications service” to include only voice communications offerings and not any non-voice data or information service offerings.  According to the Wisconsin PSC, only revenues from voice communications service will now be subject to state USF assessments.  The Wisconsin PSC adopted the following contribution methodology for providers of mixed services:

• If the service is predominantly (more than 80 percent of communication traffic volume) or solely used for voice, or predominantly or solely used for non-voice, the revenues should be assigned 100 percent to voice or non-voice, as appropriate.
• If the service is basically a “package” or ”bundle” of voice and non-voice services, and there is a separate price for each stated on a customer’s bill, the revenues from the service shall be allocated based on those separately stated prices.
• If the service is basically a “package” or “bundle” of voice and non-voice services that are each also offered separately, the revenues from the service shall be allocated so that the entire discount inherent in the package or bundle is allocated entirely to non-voice services. In other words. the USF assessable portion of the revenue is equal to the stand-alone price of the voice service.
• If none of the first three methods applies to the service in question, the provider can either: 1) Use a safe harbor allocation percentage of50 percent of service revenues subject to USF assessment; or 2) Use any other reasonable allocation method other than those previously mentioned and subject to other PSC conditions.

The Wisconsin PSC order is at the following link:

https://psc.wi.gov/apps35/ERF_view/viewdoc.aspx?docid=159445

Questions regarding this advisory should be directed to the Attorney responsible for your account.