PUBLIC NOTICE Federal Communications Commission 445 12th St., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 News Media Information 202 / 418-0500 Internet: http://www.fcc.gov TTY: 1-888-835-5322 DA 10-1347 Release Date: July 21, 2010 WIRELINE COMPETITION BUREAU REMINDS FCC FORM 499-Q FILERS OF AUGUST 2 FILING DEADLINE AND TRAFFIC STUDY GUIDELINES WC Docket No. 06-122 The Wireline Competition Bureau reminds providers of interstate telecommunications that are required to file FCC Form 499-Q that the deadline to file projected fourth-quarter revenues is August 2, 2010.1 Entities who fail to file FCC Form 499-Q in a timely manner may be subject to the enforcement provisions of the Communications Act and any other applicable laws; entities may also be billed by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) for reasonable costs, including interest and administrative costs, caused by late filing of this Form.2 Filers may submit FCC Form 499-Q electronically at https://forms.universalservice.org/. Filers relying on a traffic study as a proxy for apportioning their end-user revenues among the intrastate, interstate, and international jurisdictions must submit that study for review to both USAC and the Commission “no later than the deadline for submitting the FCC Form 499-Q for the same time period.”3 The deadline for filing traffic studies reflecting projected fourth-quarter revenues therefore is also August 2, 2010. In addition, we remind filers that traffic studies must meet the following guidelines: § Traffic studies “must be based on information that is current for the filing period.” § Traffic studies must include “(1) an explanation of the sampling and estimation methods employed and (2) an explanation as to why the study results in an unbiased estimate . . . .” § Traffic studies are studies that are designed to determine the relative number of minutes of use related to intrastate calls, interstate calls, and international calls, and must “be designed to produce a margin of error of no more than one percent with a confidence level of 95%.”4 Failure to meet the above guidelines may result in traffic studies being rejected or investigated.5 For further information, please contact Nicholas A. Degani, Telecommunications Access Policy Division, Wireline Competition Bureau at (202) 418-7400 or TTY (202) 418-0484. - FCC - 1 Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet, FCC Form 499-Q, Instructions for Completing the Quarterly Worksheet for Filing Contributions to Universal Service Support Mechanisms at 9–10 (2010) (FCC Form 499-Q Instructions). Because the usual filing deadline (August 1) falls on a Sunday, the actual filing deadline is the Monday thereafter. See 47 C.F.R. § 1.4(j). Under the Commission’s rules, Forms are considered filed upon receipt. As a result, the Universal Service Administrative Company and the Commission must receive the FCC Form 499-Q and any related traffic studies by August 2, 2010. See 47 C.F.R. § 1.7. 2 See 47 C.F.R. § 54.713. 3 Universal Service Contribution Methodology, WC Docket 06-122, Report and Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 21 FCC Rcd 7518, 7535–36, para. 32 (2006). 4 FCC Form 499-Q Instructions at 17–19. 5 See id. at 19.