said by money :It will...improve the USF. 'Cause ya know, those government assisted cell phone services suck up USF funding like a vacuum, and those funds have to be replinished from somewhere...
BINGO! ... and we have a winner.
Also, they're enjoy the added revenue from forcing landlines on to customers again. They already charge a higher price for naked-DSL, but they can get EVEN MORE by forcing that land line back on to the bill as well.
These phone companies who feel they need to shore up their wireline service often forget one thing when they talk about how they're losing money on the wire service... they shifted many of their users on to a much more expensive and profitable wireless service (that they also own) that is doing rather well for them. So, as they complain and moan about the lost land line revenue they need to simply dip into their wireless and shore up the wireline.
This is case of more historic and typical phone company greed that has plagued this nation since they came into existence.