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 ·AT&T Southeast
| reply to richk_1957
Re: The FCC will moan, groan & make threatening noises Washington — Under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, BellSouth said Friday that it will stop collecting a $2.97 per month regulatory fee from its high-speed Internet customers.
The company made the announcement after learning the FCC had begun investigating whether the carrier and Verizon Communications were violating federal truth-in-billing laws.
BellSouth said it is "immediately eliminating" the fee that was "designed to recover a number of costs remaining from previous regulatory obligations and other network expenses."
The company said most of BellSouth's DSL Internet service customers will see the change on their bills within a week.
Both companies have been accused of continuing to collect regulatory fees that the government is no longer assessing.
The FCC confirmed Friday that "letters of inquiry" had been mailed to the two carriers seeking information about their billing practices.
At issue is the Universal Service Fund, a fee the government imposes on carriers to subsidize communications services in rural and low-income areas. Carriers pass the charge along to customers and usually itemize it on their bills.
FCC spokeswoman Tamara Lipper said Friday that the agency prefers to let competitive forces govern the markets with minimum government regulation but is "willing and quick to act to protect consumers."
The FCC decided last year that carriers would no longer be required to collect the fee for high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL) service starting Aug. 14, 2006.
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