Sec.  54.604   Existing contracts.

   (a) Existing contracts. A signed contract for services eligible for support
   pursuant to this subpart between an eligible health care provider as defined
   under  Sec. 54.601 and a telecommunications carrier shall be exempt from the
   competitive bid requirements set forth in  Sec. 54.603(a) as follows:

   (1) A contract signed on or before July 10, 1997 is exempt from the
   competitive bid requirement for the life of the contract; or

   (2) A contract signed after July 10, 1997 but before the date on which the
   universal service competitive bid system described in  Sec. 54.603 is operational
   is exempt from the competitive bid requirements only with respect to
   services that will be provided under such contract between January 1, 1998
   and December 31, 1998.

   (b) For rural health care providers that take service under or pursuant to a
   master contract, as defined in  Sec. 54.500(f), the date of execution of that
   master contract represents the applicable date for purposes of determining
   whether and to what extent the rural health care provider is exempt from the
   competitive bid requirements.

   (c) The competitive bid system will be deemed to be operational when the
   Administrator is ready to accept and post FCC Form 465 from rural health
   care providers on a website and that website is available for use by
   telecommunications carriers.

   (d) The exemption from competitive bid requirements set forth in paragraph
   (a) of this section shall not apply to voluntary extensions or renewals of
   existing contracts, except to the extent that an eligible rural health care
   provider as defined in  Sec. 54.601 or consortium that includes an eligible
   health care provider, and that filed an application within the 75-day
   initial filing window for 1998 (May 1, 1998—July 14, 1998), may voluntarily
   extend or renew, to a date no later than June 30, 1999, an existing contract
   that otherwise would terminate between July 14, 1998 and June 30, 1999.

   [ 63 FR 2131 , Jan. 13, 1998;  63 FR 33586 , June 19, 1998, as amended at  63 FR 70572 , Dec. 21, 1998;  64 FR 22810 , Apr. 28, 1999]