General Information and Background

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Title IV of the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed by the President on July 26, 1990, amended Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, by adding a new section on telecommunications services for deaf or hard of hearing persons and/or persons with speech and language disorders. Generally, the new section provided that common carriers must provide telephone services to deaf or hard of hearing persons and/or persons with speech and language disorders that are functionally equivalent to services provided to hearing individuals.

Telecommunications Relay Service commonly known as TRS provides a relay service for deaf, hard of hearing and/or persons with speech and language disorders enabling them to communicate via telephone with the assistance of a trained Communications Assistant (CA). The first mandated statewide relay service was implemented in California in 1987. Today, as mandated by the FCC, all of the states provide Telecommunications Relay Service.

In September 1989, the Pennsylvania Telephone Association (PTA or Association) transmitted a White Paper Summary of Findings to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC or Commission) relative to the provision of TRS. It stated that the PTA recognized the needs of the hard of hearing community and that it supported the establishment of a statewide relay system. In October 1989, the PUC responded to the PTA agreeing with PTAs establishment of a relay system, and requested that the Association formulate and submit a definitive plan in the form of a Petition to Establish a Pennsylvania Relay System.

The PTA presented a Request for Proposal (RFP) to the Commission in February 1990, which was reviewed and accepted. Formal offers to provide the contemplated TRS were submitted by four prospective service providers, which were reviewed by a Bid Committee who identified AT&T as presenting the best bid. On May 29, 1990 , the Commission issued an Opinion and Order at Docket No. M-00900239, granting the Petition of the PTA for the purpose of establishing a Pennsylvania Relay Service for the Deaf, and Hearing and/or Speech Impaired Community. The May 29, 1990 Order also granted the Application of AT&T (Docket No. A-310125) for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to provide the relay service necessary for delivering TRS in Pennsylvania. AT&T has remained the TRS provider in Pennsylvania.

The May 29, 1990 Order further concluded that a uniform surcharge based upon total access lines would be the most appropriate funding mechanism to recover charges associated with the operation of a statewide telecommunications relay center. The Commission established a monthly end-user billing surcharge (TRS surcharge) based on access lines which is collected by Pennsylvania s Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILEC) and Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLEC). The TRS surcharge is imposed on both residential and business lines, and is recalculated annually by the Commission. (If necessary, the Commission may revise the surcharge more frequently than annually.) The calculation uses the following formula:

TRS Annual Operating Cost/Total Access Lines x 1/12 = Surcharge per access line per month.

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Each Pennsylvania Local Exchange Carrier is required to have the TRS language in its tariff as follows:

Telephone Company Name                               Tariff Telephone PA P.U.C. No. ________
                                                                                     Original Page No.________

Pennsylvania Telecommunications Relay Service

1. General

The Pennsylvania Telecommunications Relay Service (PA TRS) is a relay telecommunication service for the deaf, hard of hearing, hearing and/or speech disabled population of the Commonwealth. The PA TRS is mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to provide functionally equivalent telephone services that are available to other U.S. citizens, at no additional cost. The PA TRS includes both traditional relay (devices such as Teletypewriters (TTY) and Telecommunication Devices for the Deaf (TDD)) and captioned-telephone voice-carry-over relay services (captioned telephone). These relay services permit telephone communications between individuals with hearing and/or speech disabilities, who must use a TTY, TDD or captioned telephone, with individuals having normal hearing and speech.

Additionally, 711 abbreviated dialing is available to access the PA TRS. The company’s switching equipment is arranged to translate the “711” calls to the assigned toll-free number, (888) 895-1197, in order to route calls to the Telecommunications Relay Service Provider, in accordance with Commission’s Order entered on February 4, 2000 at Docket No. M-00900239.

2. Surcharge

In addition to the charges provided in this tariff, a surcharge will apply to all residence and business access lines served by this company. (Access lines are those lines extending from the telephone company’s central office to the end-user’s premises.) This surcharge applies regardless of whether or not the access line uses the PA TRS.

The surcharge serves as the funding vehicle for the operation of the PA TRS, Telecommunications Device Distribution Program and the Print Media Access Service Program and shall be calculated by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (the Commission). The Commission shall compute the PA TRS surcharge each year and notify local exchange carriers of the surcharge amount to be applied for the 12-month period commencing with July 1 of each year.

The Commission may revise the surcharge more frequently than annually at its discretion.

Tariff revisions will be filed whenever the Commission calculates a new surcharge amount and notifies the company.

The following surcharge rates apply to all customer bills issued on or after July 1, 2009.

Per residence access line, per month $0.08

Per business access line, per month $0.08

The TRS surcharge will be applied to Centrex lines using the following Centrex Equivalent Lines Table on a per Centrex customer basis.

Number of Centrex Lines	Equivalent Lines
1	1
2	2
3	3
4 to 6	4
7 to 10	5
11 to 15	6
16 to 21	7
22 to 28	8
29 to 36	9
37 to 45	10
46 to 54	11
55 to 64	12
65 to 75	13
76 to 86	14
87 to 98	15
99 to 111	16
112 to 125	17
126 to 139	18
140 to 155	19
156 to 171	20
172 to 189	21
190 to 207	22
208 to 225	23
226 to 243	24
244 to 262	25
263 to 281	26
282 to 300	27
Each additional 18 Centrex lines	1

3. Rates

Local calls will be charged at the applicable local flat rate or local measured service rate. Toll calls will be charged at the applicable toll rate found in the selected long distance provider’s rate schedule or current tariff. If the customer has not chosen a long distance carrier the default carrier’s rates will apply for the toll calls.

4. Fund Administrator

A Fund Administrator was chosen to receive the surcharge revenues and to disburse the fund monies necessary for the operation of the Pennsylvania Telecommunications Relay programs. Currently, the Fund Administrator is U.S. Bank Institutional Trust & Custody. All local service providers are required to collect and remit the TRS surcharge revenue monthly, by the 20th of each month using the format shown on the monthly remittance form.

Checks are payable to: Pennsylvania TRS Fund

Remittance for Monthly TRS Surcharge Collections

Mail Report and Payment to:	Wire Instructions
U.S. Bank Institutional Trust & Custody Sue Massey EX-PA-WBSP 50 South 16th Street, 20th Floor Philadelphia, PA 19102	Bank: U.S. Bank N.A. Address: 60 Livingston Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55107-2292 ABA: 091 000 022 BNF: ITC Depository South & East Account: 173 103 781 832 OBI: PA Relay Attention: Sue Massey

It is of greatest importance that hard of hearing persons and persons with speech and language disorders have the ability and means to communicate with others in day to day dealings. Possible enhancements to the existing TRS are continually being investigated.