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Alakar
Facts do not cease to exist when ignored
join:2001-03-23
Milwaukee, WI

Alakar

Member

This article is very misleading.....

I work for one of the big ILEC's doing programming on the billing system. I can tell you that this article really gives the wrong impression.

Most of the "fee's" that you see on your phone bill are in fact government mandated taxes. We are not allowed, by the government, to list them as taxes. Some are direct taxes like USF, some are indirect like the tax recovery fee noted in the article.

USF is a tax on everyone to subsidize phone service in rural areas. Without this tax, those of you that live 50 or more miles outside of a major metro area, would not have phone service. The infrastructure costs are more then any money made off of usage. Rural lines are money losers, so the government decides everybody gets to pay for them.

Your bill should have a 911 fee. This pays for your local E911 system. There are Transit fee's in some areas. This supports their bus and train systems. I pay stadium tax in my area to pay for a new baseball stadium.

The line

"but the partial recovery of tax that Verizon Online must pay when they purchase the DSL circuit from the telephone company."

is true and accurate. FCC regulations require that Verizon Online be a separate entity from the main phone company. They have to purchase services from the main phone company and that purchase is subject to sales tax. Verizon didn't set it up this way, the government did. Works the same way for Long Distance. I can't even talk to people in our long distance company because of FCC regs.

Some states have so many taxing authorities (State, County, Municipal, Transit, etc.) you would not believe it. Some of these taxes, we are not allowed to display on your bill and we have to roll them into the price of service. Your legislators don't want you to see that they put through a tax increase, so they force us to hide it. All of these taxes have to be approved by the local PUC (Public Utilities Commission), another government body.

Some ILECs do charge other fee's but most of the stuff (+90%) that you see on your phone bill is government mandated. Instead of getting P.O.ed at the company, start getting P.O.ed at your local, state and Federal legislature. Their the ones imposing most of these "Fee's".

Disclaimer: I don't work for Verizon, I work for another ILEC.

wmcbrine
join:2002-12-30
Laurel, MD

wmcbrine

Member

Re: This article is very misleading.....

BS.

I currently have Covad DSL (line-shared with Verizon POTS). You know how much I pay in "extra" fees? $0. POTS aside, I don't believe there's anything preventing Verizon Online from doing business the same way, except their own choice.

I'm not saying that you're intentionally lying. I don't doubt that the ILECs have indoctrinated their employees to believe the same thing they're trying to get their customers to believe: "It's not us, it's the gummint! Honest!"

Insofar as there's any substance to that claim: Guess who wrote those regulations in the first place? Guess who bought the legislators?

Yeah, I am pissed off at our so-called elected officials, for being so easily bought. But I'm more pissed off at the ILECs for buying them.

Alakar
Facts do not cease to exist when ignored
join:2001-03-23
Milwaukee, WI

Alakar

Member

Re: This article is very misleading.....

You don't pay extra fees because Verizon has to resell your line to Covad. Covad gets access to Verizon CO's and Verizon equipment below cost because of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. It's suppose to encourage competition but it just impedes improvements to the infrastructure. Why should a company build out new RC's and upgrade systems if they have to resell them to their competitors?

wmcbrine
join:2002-12-30
Laurel, MD

wmcbrine

Member

Re: This article is very misleading.....

And that has what to do with extra fees? Nothing. Whatever Covad pays to Verizon, it manages to present me with a single-item bill, for the same amount as it advertises. Whatever Verizon pays to itself, it chooses not to present customers with an honest price, but rather to advertise one price and charge another.

Please take your ILEC propaganda and stuff it.

lady_mt
@jcs-wy.client.bresna

lady_mt to Alakar

Anon

to Alakar
Since they want so badly for us consumers to pay a tax recovery fee for something that THEY have to pay for, then I say we turn the tables on them and let them know we want them to pay a tax recovery fee to US for the taxes we have to pay.

If verizon is "required by law to remain a seperate entity from the telephone company", then why don't they get off their arses and do what someone with half a brain could figure out on their own and do so we wouldn't have to pay the tax?