Phone Companies Bill Public for Nonexistent Equipment

Srinivasan Ramakrishnan writes "Forbes has an eye-opening article on the scam that lets the Bells scoop $5 billion every year from the consumer with the sanction of the FCC. The FCC Line charge that appears on every phone bill is a vestige of a deal that was struck by the FCC with the Bells. The deal was touted by the FCC as a historic win that saved $3.2 Billion a year for the consumer - Forbes takes a closer look at the deal."

Comments

Re:xtermz's Latest 24 of 214 Comments

[BubbaTheBarbarian]

Ativan...an lots of it...We here at /. would HATE to see ya blow a blood vessal before you hit an age of wisdom. So much time, so much of it wasted on the pursuit of nothingness.
WAR GATORS!!!!

Re:A tired industry

[puppet10]

you forgot banking

Re:Accounting complexities

[pmz]

Could anyone have kept accurate track of equipment and accounting for it under those conditions?

We could just tip off the BSA. I'd bet there are lots of DOS and Windows licenses floating around that haven't been paid for twice. Just watch the telcos crumble under the BSA onslaught.