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                                                           Before the
               Federal Communications Commission
                      Washington, DC 20554


In the Matter of                     )
                                     )
Federal-State Joint Board on         )       CC Docket No 96-45
Universal Service                       )
                                     )
Proposed First Quarter 2000         )        DA 99-2780
Universal Service Contribution Factor       )

                             ORDER

Adopted:  January 12, 2000              Released:  January 13, 2000

By the Deputy Chief, Common Carrier Bureau:

1.   AT&T has requested that the Commission revise the universal service contribution
factor for the first quarter of 2000 in light of the Commission's decision in the universal service
Nineteenth Order on Reconsideration to defer the provision of forward-looking high-cost support
for non-rural carriers until the third quarter of 2000.  In the Nineteenth Order on
Reconsideration, however, the Commission explained that the decision to defer the provision of
forward-looking support does not change the January 1, 2000 effective date of the new forward-
looking support mechanism or the aggregate amount of high-cost support to be provided to non-
rural carriers under the new mechanism.  Rather, carriers will receive forward-looking support
payments in the third and fourth quarters of 2000 that are retroactive to the first and second
quarters of 2000, respectively.
2.     Moreover, in the High-Cost Methodology Order, the Commission directed USAC to
begin collecting contributions for the forward-looking high-cost support mechanism in the first
quarter of 2000 as if support were being provided to all carriers potentially eligible for forward-
looking support "to prevent fluctuations in the contribution factor and [to] ensure a uniform
collection of contributions" throughout 2000.  Because the Nineteenth Order on Reconsideration
does not change the effective date of the new mechanism or the aggregate amount of support
provided to non-rural carriers under the new mechanism, we find no reason to depart from the
Commission's decision in the High-Cost Methodology Order to direct USAC to begin collecting
contributions for the forward-looking high-cost support mechanism in the first quarter of 2000. 
We therefore deny AT&T's request to revise the universal service contribution factor for the first
quarter of 2000.

3.     Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that, pursuant to sections 1, 4(i), 5(c), and 254 of the
Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C.  151, 154(i), 155(c), and 254, and
sections 0.91, 0.291, and 1.106 of the Commission's rules, 47 C.F.R.  0.91, 0.291, and 1.106,
the Petition for Reconsideration of the Proposed First Quarter 2000 Universal Service
Contribution Factor filed by AT&T on December 22, 1999, IS DENIED.


                                                  FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

                                                  

                                                  Yog R. Varma
                                                  Deputy Chief, Common Carrier Bureau