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.

   (2) [Reserved]

   (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.

   [ 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;  71 FR 65750 , Nov. 9, 2006]