Verizon Stops Selling Standalone DSL to New Users → fees, taxes, unwanted service...gee, lots like cable!

I would guess part of it is that it's a numbers game for them. They get to charge fees like the FUSF line charge, all taxes from local up to any federal (isn't there something like a federal excise tax?), and get the float on it between the time they collect to the time they disburse that money. It might not be a whole lot on any one individual subscriber, but multiplied by the many, many ones they have, it'll start to add up. Add in the fact that the likely reason these dry loop sub's are that way is they subscribe to VoIP instead, it's pure profit for them, because basic phone service isn't going to come with any of the "standard" VoIP features: voicemail, three-way, CND, call waiting, etc. They charge up the wazoo for EACH of those features.

Hey, wait a minute! This would seem so similar to cablecos! Think about it! They pack all these channels in which you have absolutely no interest whatsoever into their basic package, and insist they can't really offer it any other way. Not only that, they have a vested interest in offering it to you that way. If you "cut the cord" and only subscribed to their Internet access service, then use only iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Netflix, Sickbeard, etc., you'd be getting what you really wanted by alternate means, and not via their arguably overpriced video service.

I'd also have to say they have chumps for writers if that is indeed exactly as the email was written. Discriminating people know that "Internet" is a proper noun and requires capitalization. As written, that would refer to any kind of internetwork, not necessarily the public Internet.