DSL Surcharge Plan Abandoned by Major Carriers

thedletterman writes to mention a USAToday article about the proposed surcharges on DSL lines. The FCC stepped in just as major carriers Verizon and BellSouth made moves to add a $1-$3 surcharge to their DSL services; they were coincidentally to add this charge just as the Universal Service Fund fee was being removed from all DSL services. From the article: "Verizon, in a statement, said it was dropping the new fee as a result of feedback from consumers: 'We have listened to our customers, and are eliminating the charge.' Gene Kimmelman of Consumers Union had another explanation: 'They got caught red-handed in a blatant consumer rip-off. Only under the pressure of regulators cracking down on them did they back off from this unwarranted charge.' The FCC last week sent Verizon a 'letter of inquiry,' the first step in a formal investigation."

Comments

Moo

[Chacham]

Traditionally, i'm against government stepping in. I'm a firm believer that the market should (and will) regulate itself, only requiring laws breaking monopolies on limited necessities. But with consumer's getting more stupidly passive, and companies more ingeniously aggressive, i'm left without a force to join, and the companies, who as a result of frequent changeover and short-termed decisions, never think of the customers as more than a quick way to make money, we need a government body stepping in.

We are no longer practising Capitalism. This is more of a MoneyGrabism.

Re:Moo

[Intron]

Let's try an experiment in letting market forces rule. I set up a PBX and connect up the 6 houses in my neighborhood. I get a bill from the phone company and apportion it based on fixed cost + per minute to the folks using the phone. I will also provide backup VOIP for when the phone goes out or all lines are busy, and a UPS for power outages. My guess is that I have just cut our phone bills in half.

The experiment is to see how many days it takes for the government and phone company to come out and cut the wires and arrest me.

More on this

[dcgirl20006]

This is the website from Kimmelman's team, has a bunch of info on the press release and the fees.

Verizon enables criminals

[Quiet_Desperation]

I'm dropping Verizon land line service in favor of VOIP in a week or so. I got an expensive collect call charged to my bill last month, a call I never accepted, and the date/time stamp showed it supposed ocurred when I was at work (and I live alone). Verizon's response was "Oh, we just poass those charges from the original collect call company." Contacting the other company produced nothing, and a quick online investigation shows that they are the source of many phone line scams.

Fuck you, Verizon. By passing on the charges and doing NOTHING for your customers, you are an enabler, and just as guilty as the other company. Fuck you, fuck the cocksucking MBAs who made you what you are, and kiss my lilly white ass.

Re:comcast ha

[Phreakiture]

This is one of the things I like about Road Runner.

I was quoted $44.95/month.

My bill is $44.95/month.

See the connection? No fees, no taxes, no charges besides the $44.95/month. The service is pretty good, too.

Now, before someone suggests that I look at my cable bill for the hidden fees, or asks about what I pay for my cable service, I think I should point out that I do not subscribe to cable (I get my TV fix through Dish Network). It is not well known, but you can unbundle Road Runner from TW Cable TV, and I have done so. When you do so, you will pay exactly $44.95/month for the middle-tier Road Runner residential service, and not a cent more.

Re:Say what?

[RevDobbs]

Verizon is a fairly honorable company compared to their competition. . . . Certainly a sight better than Comcast and their incompetence or their outright lies.

I'm not a Comcast customer, so I can't speak on them.

I was, however, a Cablevision internet ("Optimum Online") and Verizon DSL customer at the same time for about a month, back when Verizon was still running the "Cable is shared and teh slowz!" advertisements (that the FTC later made them stop running). I learned first hand (and demonstrated to anyone I could get over to my apartment) how much faster cable was than DSL -- with out the hassel of putting filters on all the other phone lines, or of PPPoE.

When I finally called to cancle the service, they tried to keep me on by offering everything from faster service (I didn't even realize that faster DSL was an option) to one year of reduced fees. When I finally said "Look, I have cable, and it is faster with large data and has a lot less lag", the VZ rep put the cancelation through with any further protest. Even Verizon's own employees know that they can't compete with cable internet on a serice basis.