On December 15, 2025, the FCC released the proposed contribution factor for the first quarter of 2026 at 37.6 percent. The contribution factor requires telecommunications companies to pay a percentage of their interstate end-user revenues to the Universal Service Fund. The FCC announcement also “…emphasizes that carriers may not mark up federal universal service line-item amounts above the contribution factor. Thus carriers may not, during the first quarter of 2026, recover through a federal universal service line item an amount that exceeds 37.6 percent of the interstate telecommunications charges on a customer’s bill.”
The proposed first quarter 2026 contribution factor Public Notice can be viewed here.
