Frequently Asked Questions

AT&T and other carriers are required to contribute to the federal Universal Service Fund (USF) on jurisdictionally interstate (and international) telecommunications service revenues. AT&T applies the Universal Connectivity Charge (UCC) (which is described in the AT&T Business Services Guide available at http://new.serviceguide.att.com/) to allow AT&T to recover its USF contribution associated with telecommunications service components. The UCC percentage applicable to these charges will be equal to the quarterly USF contribution factor established by the FCC. The UCC percentage is subject to change as the USF contribution factor is altered by the FCC.
If AT&T is providing an interstate telecommunications service and, therefore, contributing to the federal USF on revenues for these telecommunications services, then the UCC will be applied. Effective July, 2008, AT&T will apply the UCC to the access line component included with Frame Relay to ATM Service Interworking (including IP-enabled Frame Relay and ATM), INCS, and Enhanced VPN Services. This is done to allow AT&T to recover the USF contribution associated with the telecommunications services component of these enhanced services.
For charges billed on or after April 1, 2024, the UCC percentage will be equal to (subject to rounding) the quarterly USF contribution factor established by the FCC and in effect for that bill period. The 2nd Quarter UCC factor will decrease from 34.6% to 32.8%. The applicable quarterly contribution factor can also be found on the FCC’s Contribution Factors & Quarterly Filings Site.
The Administrative Expense Fee (AEF) is a fee separate from the UCC and recovers a portion of AT&T’s internal costs associated with the USF and other related programs. Prior to April 1, 2003, these internal costs were recovered as part of the UCC. As a result of a Decision by the FCC on December 13, 2002, beginning on April 1, 2003, carriers who want to collect this type of expense as a line item charge must do so through a line item separate from that used for recovery of actual USF assessments. Effective January 1, 2023, the Administrative Expense Fee increased from 1.36% to 1.71%. We continue to make every effort to recover these costs in a fair and equitable manner.
AT&T believes that collecting these expenses as separate line items provides more information to customers.
The Federal Access Recovery Fee (FARF) is a charge designed to recover, in part, AT&T’s costs of purchasing local access service from the Local Exchange Carriers (LECs), which include regulatory fees that LECs assess on AT&T.
Effective with the first invoice after July 1, 2008, AT&T will begin billing a monthly Federal Access Recovery Fee (FARF) and applicable taxes. This charge will be based on the price of the local access service component when integrated into the following enhanced services: Managed Internet Service (MIS), and/or Private Network Transport (PNT) service and AT&T VPN Tunneling Service (AVTS). The FARF percentage is subject to change.
The USF discount application process established by the Schools and Libraries Division (SLD)requires that applicants designate on Form 471 their selected service provider by a unique identification number. For AT&T Corporation, that number is 143001192. For more information on the SLD application process, visit the Schools and Libraries Division web site.(Note: For AT&T Wireless Services or if you are located in Alaska, a different SPIN may apply.)
The Property Tax Allotment is applied to all interstate and US billed international charges, excluding taxes, subject to billing availability. This is not a tax, but a recovery of an expense that AT&T is required to pay. This expense represents state and local property taxes imposed on AT&T.
Where they exist, these are state/local level surcharges that are assessed in accordance with applicable state laws, generally on charges for intrastate telecommunications services in support of the Universal Service Fund in that state.
Customers are required to certify the amount of total interstate traffic (including Internet and international traffic) on each UVN. If the interstate traffic on a UVN is greater than 10%, it will have a regulatory jurisdiction of “interstate” and Federal USF and other interstate surcharges will apply. Otherwise it will have a regulatory jurisdiction of “intrastate” and State/Local surcharges (if any) will apply.
The Federal Regulatory Fee (FRF) is a fee separate from the UCC and recovers amounts paid to the federal government for regulatory costs, telecommunications services for the hearing impaired, and costs associated with local number portability administration. Effective January 1, 2023, the Federal Regulatory Fee increased from 6.38% to 7.92%.