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911 – This charge is imposed by local
governments to help pay for emergency services such as fire and rescue.
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Federal Excise Tax – This is a three percent
tax mandated by the federal government. It is imposed on all telecommunications services,
including local, long distance and wireless bills.
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(Federal) Subscriber Line Charge – This was
instituted after the break-up of AT&T in 1984 to cover the costs of
the local phone network. This charge may appear as "FCC Charge for
Network Access," "Federal Line Cost Charge," "Interstate Access Charge,"
"Federal Access Charge," "Interstate Single Line Charge," "Customer Line
Charge" or "FCC-Approved Customer Line Charge."
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Local Number Portability Charge
(LNP) – The
FCC allows local telephone companies to recover certain costs for
providing "telephone number portability" to its customers. This charge
provides residential and business telephone customers with the
ability to retain, at the same location, their existing local
telephone numbers when switching from one local telephone service
provider to another. This is a fixed, monthly charge. Local telephone
companies may continue to assess this charge on their customers’
telephone bills for five years from the date the local telephone company
first began itemizing the charge on the bill.
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State & Local Municipal Tax – This charge
is imposed by state, local and municipal governments on goods and
services. It may also appear as a "gross receipts" tax in some states.
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(State) Subscriber Line Charge – This charge
is mandated by some states’ public service or utility commissions to
compensate the local phone company for part of the cost of providing
local telephone lines associated with state services, i.e., intrastate
long distance and local exchange services.
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Telecommunications Relay Services Charge –
This state charge helps to pay for the relay center which transmits and
translates calls for hearing-impaired and speech-impaired people.
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Universal Service Fund (USF) (Also called the
Universal Connectivity Fee) - Because telephones provide a vital
link to emergency services, to government services and to surrounding
communities, it has been our nation’s policy to promote telephone
service to all households since this service began in the 1930s. The USF
helps to make phone service affordable and available to all Americans,
including consumers with low incomes, those living in areas where the
costs of providing telephone service is high, schools and libraries and
rural health care providers. Congress has mandated that all telephone
companies providing interstate service must contribute to the USF.
