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The Public Service Commission (PSC) of New York on June 2, 1998 in its
"Order and Opinion 98-10", ordered the establishment of the
Targeted Accessibility Fund, Inc (TAF). The TAF was designed to fund the following services:
"Enhanced 911" (E911), "Telecommunications Relay Service"
(TRS) for the hearing and speech impaired, and "Lifeline Service."
Subsequently on September 25, 1998 the PSC ordered in case 96-C-1174 also to provide limited funding for
"Public Interest Payphones" thru TAF.
TAF started functioning as ordered on October 1998. The TAF also as ordered by the PSC
is administered by the New York Intrastate Access Settlement Pool, Inc.
(Pool) and is governed by an Advisory Board in accordance
with the PSC Order. The Advisory Board supervises the Pool activities associated with the
implementation of TAF. The administrator is responsible for:
Publishing TAF "procedures" and
"reporting forms"
Processing, review, and audit TAF data.
Billing and collection of TAF payments.
Conduct day to day operations and advise Board
Disbursement of TAF Settlements to participating carriers.
As ordered by the PSC, the TAF shall be funded by all regulated Telecommunication
providers (this excludes Cellular and PCS) operating in the state of New York, based upon
relative net revenues.
Enhanced 911 costs recoverable from the TAF include:
Costs incurred by database administration associated with the initial loading of data
to its data base.
Initial loading and recurring costs for other local companies for collecting, processing
and submitting data to the data base operator.
Trunking costs from the serving central office to the E911 tandem and the costs of two
free trunks for the E911 tandem to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs.)
Telecommunications Relay Systems costs recoverable from the TAF include:
Cost of the TRS Operating Center & Auxiliary Relay.
Costs associated with TRS Board meetings.
Costs of auditing provider data and other Commission authorized TRS functions.
Lifeline Service funding shall be made available for both the incumbent local exchange
carriers (ILECs) and the facility-based competitor, equal to the difference between the
incumbent’s non-lifeline and Lifeline rates.
Public Interest Payphone (PIP) limited funding for each
PIP capped at an amount equal to the recurring and local usage charges for a public access
line service, as approved by the Director of Communications of the Department of Public Service.
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