Consumers are sometimes confused by the various charges and items on their monthly telephone bills. The FCC's Truth-in-Billing rules require telephone companies to provide clear, non-misleading, plain language in describing services for which you are being billed. The company sending you the bill must identify the service provider associated with each charge. If a bill contains charges in addition to basic local service, it must distinguish between charges for which non-payment will result in disconnection of basic local service, and charges for which non-payment will not result in disconnection. Telephone companies must also display, on each bill, one or more toll-free numbers that you can call to ask about or dispute any charge on the bill.
Here is a detailed description of some of the charges or line items that may appear on your traditional wireline telephone bill.
Charges on Wireline Telephone Bills
Access Charges
Access charges are fees charged subscribers or other telephone companies by a local telephone company for the use of its local network.
The FCC allows local telephone companies to bill customers for a portion of the costs of providing access. These charges are not a government charge or tax. The maximum allowable access charges per telephone line are set by the FCC, but local telephone companies are free to charge less or nothing at all. Access charges for second or additional lines at the same residence are higher than the charges for the primary line. These charges can be described on your telephone bill as "Federal Access Charge," "Customer or Subscriber Line Charge," "Interstate Access Charge," etc.
State public service commissions regulate access charges for intrastate (within a state) calls. In some states, a state subscriber line charge may appear on customer bills.
Federal Excise Tax
This percentile tax is now applied only to local service billed separately from long distance service.
State & Local Taxes
These taxes are imposed by state, local, and municipal governments on goods and services. They may also appear as "gross receipts" taxes on your bill.
Universal Service Charges
The Universal Service Fund (USF) provides support to promote access to telecommunications services at reasonable rates for those living in rural and high-cost areas, income-eligible consumers, rural health care facilities, and schools and libraries.
All telecommunications service providers and certain other providers of telecommunications must contribute to the federal USF based on a percentage of their interstate and international end-user telecommunications revenues. These companies include wireline phone companies, wireless phone companies, paging service companies, and certain Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers.
Some consumers may notice a "Universal Service" line item on their telephone bills. This line item appears when a company chooses to recover its USF contributions directly from its customers by billing them this charge. The FCC does not require this charge to be passed on to customers. Each company makes a business decision about whether and how to assess charges to recover its Universal Service costs. These charges usually appear as a percentage of the consumer's phone bill. Companies that choose to collect Universal Service fees from their customers cannot collect an amount that exceeds their contribution to the USF. They also cannot collect any fees from a Lifeline program participant.
911, LNP, and TRS Charges
911 - Charge imposed by local governments to help pay for emergency services such as fire and rescue.
Local Number Portability (LNP) - Telephone number portability allows residential and business customers to retain, at the same location, their existing local telephone numbers when switching from one telephone service provider to another. Companies may assess fees to recover the costs that they incur in providing number portability. Fees may vary by company, and some companies may not charge any fees. These fees are not taxes.
Telecommunications Relay Service - Charge to help pay for the relay center that transmits and translates calls for people with hearing or speech disabilities.
Other Charges
Directory Assistance - Any charges for placing 411 or (area code) 555-1212 directory assistance calls.
Monthly Calling Plan Charge - Charge applicable to any monthly calling plan such as unlimited long distance calling on your wireline bill or unlimited minutes on your wireless bill.
Operator Assisted Calls - Charges for any calls connected by an operator. Rates for these calls generally are higher than rates for unassisted calls.
Features Charges - Both wireline and wireless telephone companies offer features such as call forwarding (transferring incoming calls to another telephone number); three-way calling (holding an incoming call, placing a call to a second number, and allowing three parties to participate); call waiting (providing a signal during an ongoing call to notify that another party is calling the subscriber); voice mail (message service much like an answering machine); and Caller Identification (Caller ID) (allowing the subscriber to view the telephone number of an incoming call on a display screen). With Caller ID, non-listed or non-published numbers may be displayed unless the non-listed or non-published subscriber requests that they not be.
Police and Fire Protection Fee.
The fee will be applied to all communications service connections with an assigned telephone number (i.e. landline, wireless, cable telephony etc.) including a communication service provided via a voice over Internet protocol connection (VoIP). A separate $0.75 fee per month will be imposed as each of the first ten connections; the fee for connections over 10 will be $0.075 per connection. The amounts collected from these fees will be remitted to the state and ultimately be distributed back to local units of government under the county and municipal aid program to support continued funding of police and fire protection services. This fee is mandated by law.