The MCA is publishing the decision on the ‘Review of GO plc’s application for funding of the net costs claimed to have been incurred to provide universal service obligations during 2010’.  The designated Universal Service Provider has the right to submit a written request to the Authority for the funding of any unfair burden which believes has incurred to provide part or all of the universal services in line with its obligations. For the first time under this framework, in 2012 GO submitted its funding application for the unfair burden it claims to have suffered during the financial year 2010 for providing universal service obligations. GO’s claim included the following universal service obligations components: Geographical Component; Public Payphones; Social Tariffs; and Directory Enquiry Services. Intangible benefits derived from providing the USOs were also taken into consideration.

 

The Authority decided to engage a contractor to review the application for funding and following the completion of a tender process, the MCA commissioned Ernst & Young  to carry out this assignment.  At the conclusion of the verifications and audit carried out by EY, it emerged that GO has suffered an unfair burden for providing specific elements of the universal services. The results of the cost calculation and the conclusions of the audit on each USO component were published in the consultation published in April 2014, and are included in Annex 1 of this decision. The Authority received feedback from two entities namely GO plc and Melita plc and a summary of the feedback received and the final assessment of the net cost per component are in this decision. The final calculated cost amounts to € 359,967. 

 

The allocation of the source of funding relating to GO's claim for the financial year 2010 is being addressed in a separate consultation document earmarked for publishing following the publication of this decision.