said by Skeedatl :

Which provider do you have that offers 9-1-1 as an option?

said by DMS1 :

I can accept the 911 fees since they are for a service that is now mandated and which wasn't when most VOIP providers defined their pricing models. However, AT&T states: "This fee helps AT&T recover costs associated with providing state-to-state and international long distance service ..." which means that they are charging this new fee to cover the costs of the core service that they exist to provide. This is just a price increase by any other name.

said by swintec :

I will stick with my Voicepulse lines...a steal at 14.99 and they only have one fee. I suspect they tried eating this fee at first however they added it last year. I can not seem to remember what its for but it seems like all these VoIP services by the Bells are getting just as bad as the POTS lines themselves.

said by SRFireside :

No surcharges. I pay $15 a month, period. The only time that price goes up is when we make international calls and the country we call is at $.18 a minute (one of the cheaper rates we found). We get tons of features and the calls are clear. I can't for the life of me see any reason to go for a "brand name" VOIP provider.

said by ropeguru :

Here is a break down for a two day car rental from enterprise:

2 Days @ $ 30.59 USD $ 61.18 USD VEHICLE LICENSE FEE RECOVERY $ 0.76 USD 2.02/DAY SURCHARGE/TIRE FEE $ 4.04 USD
Companies are getting soooooo greedy...

said by ropeguru :

Regardless, fees charged to companies should be included in the price and not tacked on later. A tax I can see being broken out, but all the admin fees and crap like that are getting really getting bad.

said by Lumberjack :

Why in the hell can't they just raise their price for the service vs. adding fees. Ok, maybe then it will be OBVIOUS as to what a consumer would have to pay but the'd get a hell of a lot less flak from the community with a flat rate vs. a random fee every other month.

said by binaryman :

They are so used to being monopolies, they will always tinker with fees. If ATT and others keep tacking on fees to VOIP it will play right in the hands of Skype, Google, Yahoo etc. One of the reasons people switch from POTS is because all the fees bear no direct relation to the end product. But, I guess all those Washington lobbyists must be paid.

said by Bell System :

In May of 1997, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules that mandated that telecommunications carriers pay into a federal program called the Universal Service Fund (USF). AT&T and other telecommunications carriers are required by the FCC, to pay a percentage of their revenues for state-to-state and international services into the Universal Service Fund. The FCC sets this percentage on a quarterly basis. AT&T has chosen to recover its payments into the Universal Service Fund by charging customers the UCC, which is now equal to the percentage set by the FCC.

The Universal Service Fund helps provide affordable telecommunications services for low-income customers and customers in rural areas. It also provides discounts on Internet access for eligible schools, libraries and rural health care providers. The USF is collected from telecommunications carriers and administered by the Universal Service Administration Corporation. They are responsible for disbursing the funds according to eligibility criteria established by the FCC.

In the competitive industry we are in, we cannot afford to absorb the costs associated with the USF that have been imposed on AT&T. Therefore, AT&T has chosen to recover these costs by charging a separate monthly charge called the Universal Connectivity Charge (UCC).

Effective January, 2008 the Universal Connectivity Charge has changed from 11.0% to 10.2% of your state-to-state and international long distance charges as well as any service charges. If you have AT&T for local service, (click here to see if AT&T Local is available in your area), the UCC also applies to your Subscriber Line Charge(s) (which in California, is called the Network Access for Interstate Calling Charge) and Number Portability Charge(s). You should be aware that AT&T will periodically change the UCC to reflect changes in the amount the FCC requires AT&T to pay into the Universal Service Fund. AT&T will not provide advance notice of changes to the Universal Connectivity Charge except as required by law.

New fee set to kick in 2/12/08 is my birthday; happy birthday to me.

said by ricep5 :

AT&T CV actually had a price drop on their lowest plan from $29 to $24 /month last year. Of course they didn't tell anyone, I stumbled across it on the website.

It would be interesting to see what plans get hit with the charges.