Universal service and regulatory accounting
Universal Service includes the set of services that are guaranteed to be provided for all end users, regardless of their geographic location, with a specific quality and at an affordable price. The various services included are:
- The right to connect to the public telephone network from a fixed location that allows functional access to the Internet and to the telephone service available to the public;
- the right to have guides and query services available for subscribers;
- public payphones;
- special rates and conditions for users with disabilities and specific needs;
- ree phone calls to emergency services; and
- the phone number query service for subscriber numbers (11818). Availability of these 11818 services ended on 1 January 2012, since the query numbers (118) would then be offered on a competitive basis and maintaining them was no longer necessary as part of the universal service.
Spain's Law on the Sustainable Economy established that as of 2012, connection to the public electronic communications network with capacity for functional access to the Internet, is guaranteed as part of the universal telecommunications service, and must allow broadband data communications at a download speed of 1 Mb/s.
We verify and approve the annual statement on the net cost of the universal service being offered by the operators obligated to provide this service. We then determine the net cost of the universal service for each year and, additionally, whether this cost represents an unfair burden for the operators obligated to provide it, in which case the opening of a financing mechanism for the universal service must take place.
If this is the case, we determine which operators are obligated to share the net cost for that year, and we specify the exact amounts that each of the operators must contribute to what is known as the National Fund for Universal Service (FNSU in Spanish). Current regulations make the CNMC responsible for collecting the amounts described above, as well as for distributing these to the operators providing the universal service.
We also establish the cost accounting systems that must be applied to the operators declared to have significant power on the market, and which are therefore obligated to maintain regulatory accounting systems to make the establishment of regulated prices possible. We also specify the accounting formats and methods that these operators must use.
We perform an annual review of the results in terms of costs for the obligated operators, in order to obtain information about revenues, costs, and profit margins for these services. During this review, we verify that the operators are complying with the established criteria and, when applicable, we impose the pertinent modifications, providing information that is relevant for various regulatory decisions.
We also determine the rates of return to be considered for calculation of capital costs in the regulatory cost accounting, in order to determine a reasonable rate of return for the investments made..
National Fund for Universal Service
All resolutions on the National Fund for Universal Service in the telecommunications area
Por otra parte, establecemos los sistemas de contabilidad de costes que deben aplicarse a los operadores declarados con poder significativo de mercado y que están obligados a mantener una contabilidad regulatoria para hacer posible la fijación de precios regulados, concretando además el formato y los métodos contables que estos deben utilizar.
Anualmente revisamos que estos operadores cumplan los criterios establecidos y ordenamos, en su caso, las modificaciones pertinentes.
Verificación y determinación coste neto servicio universal
Verificación de contabilidad analítica
Todas las resoluciones de verificación de contabilidad analítica en el ámbito telecomunicaciones