Sec. 54.201  Designation of eligible telecommunications carriers, 
          generally.

    (a) Carriers eligible to receive support.
    (1) Beginning January 1, 1998, only eligible telecommunications 
carriers designated under paragraphs (b) through (d) of this section 
shall receive universal service support distributed pursuant to part 36 
and part 69 of this chapter, and subparts D and E of this part.
    (2) Only eligible telecommunications carriers designated under 
paragraphs (b) through (d) of this section shall receive universal 
service support distributed pursuant to subpart G of this part. This 
paragraph does not apply to support distributed pursuant to 
Sec. 54.621(a).
    (3) This paragraph does not apply to support distributed pursuant to 
subpart F of this part.
    (b) A state commission shall upon its own motion or upon request 
designate a common carrier that meets the requirements of paragraph (d) 
of this section as an eligible telecommunications carrier for a service 
area designated by the state commission.
    (c) Upon request and consistent with the public interest, 
convenience, and necessity, the state commission may, in the case of an 
area served by a rural telephone company, and shall, in the case of all 
other areas, designate more than one common carrier as an eligible 
telecommunications carrier for a service area designated by the state 
commission, so long as each additional requesting carrier meets the 
requirements of paragraph (d) of this section. Before designating an 
additional eligible telecommunications carrier for an area served by a 
rural telephone company, the state commission shall find that the 
designation is in the public interest.
    (d) A common carrier designated as an eligible telecommunications 
carrier under this section shall be eligible to receive universal 
service support in accordance with section 254 of the Act and shall, 
throughout the service area for which the designation is received:
    (1) Offer the services that are supported by federal universal 
service support mechanisms under subpart B of this part and section 
254(c) of the Act, either using its own facilities or a combination of 
its own facilities and resale of another carrier's services (including 
the services offered by another eligible telecommunications carrier); 
and
    (2) Advertise the availability of such services and the charges 
therefore using media of general distribution.
    (e) For the purposes of this section, the term facilities means any 
physical components of the telecommunications network that are used in 
the transmission or routing of the services that are designated for 
support pursuant to subpart B of this part.
    (f) For the purposes of this section, the term ``own facilities'' 
includes, but is not limited to, facilities obtained as unbundled 
network elements pursuant to part 51 of this chapter, provided that such 
facilities meet the definition of the term ``facilities'' under this 
subpart.
    (g) A state commission shall not require a common carrier, in order 
to satisfy the requirements of paragraph

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(d)(1) of this section, to use facilities that are located within the 
relevant service area, as long as the carrier uses facilities to provide 
the services designated for support pursuant to subpart B of this part 
within the service area.
    (h) A state commission shall designate a common carrier that meets 
the requirements of this section as an eligible telecommunications 
carrier irrespective of the technology used by such carrier.
    (i) A state commission shall not designate as an eligible 
telecommunications carrier a telecommunications carrier that offers the 
services supported by federal universal service support mechanisms 
exclusively through the resale of another carrier's services.