[VoiceOps] USF is 33.4% for 2Q2021

[Peter Beckman]

Ed -- I'd love to see more data on this. Where did your understanding come
from?

I looked at my cellular bill last night, and on 4 lines, the "Fed Universal
Service Charge" was a total of $1.88 on a total bill of about $180 (about
$160 of it was just the monthly fee for 4 plans).

Does anyone know how the wireless companies pay USF? E.g. they are paying
33.4% on what exactly?

Beckman

On Thu, 10 Jun 2021, Ed Guy wrote:

> What service  features of the service are subject to USF?
> is it only charged on retail land-line replacement or at multiple levels as a value-add?
> My understanding is that cellular services do not pay USF ( but, when we had a
> cell company several years ago, all taxes were outsourced..)
>
>
> On 6/10/21, 1:07 PM, "VoiceOps on behalf of Alex Balashov"
> <voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org on behalf of abalashov at evaristesys.com>
> wrote:
>
>    That, and, while I am not at all an expert on what can and can't be
>    recovered from customers, it was my impression that not 100% of USF can
>    be passed on.
>
>    On 6/10/21 1:03 PM, Carlos Alvarez wrote:
>
>    > Except that some of us specifically sell "bottom line" pricing that is
>    > not variable and not padded with 20 lines of fees and taxes.  Because
>    > our ILEC is known for quoting $100 and billing $130-150 actual price.
>    >
>    > On Thu, Jun 10, 2021 at 9:38 AM Paul Timmins <paul at timmins.net> wrote:
>    >
>    >     On 6/10/21 6:23 AM, Alex Balashov wrote:
>    >      >
>    >      > Yeah, observing it as an outsider who is not a service provider,
>    >     I'm a
>    >      > little shocked to say the least. It's hard to understand where that
>    >      > kind of money is supposed to come from with the margins in this
>    >     business.
>    >      >
>    >     Passthru fees to the end user, duh. There's nothing us telcos can't
>    >     cram
>    >     on the bottom of the bill.
>    >
>    >     Customers are gonna be ticked, but what ya gonna do. It's a line item
>    >     now, and a line item later.

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Peter Beckman                                                  Internet Guy
beckman at angryox.com                                 http://www.angryox.com/
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