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Verizon Imposes New Surcharge on DSL Customers

6:30 am on August 24, 2006 | Category: Business, Internet, Regulation, Telecom Services, Telephone

U.S. telecom provider, Verizon Communications, has announced a new surcharge on all DSL subscriptions, which will be roughly equivalent to the Universal Service Fund fees that were until recently imposed on broadband internet customers.

USF fees of $1.25 to $2.83 per month have been billed to each and every DSL subscriber in the United States for the past several years, but have recently been phased out due to the FCCâ€™s deregulation of DSL as a telecommunications service.

Verizon is now replacing the charges with its own monthly fee of $1.20 to $2.70, depending on connection speed. Company spokeswoman, Bobby Henson claimed that the fees are due to “new costs that we’ve developed over the past year as we’ve been developing and delivering this standalone DSL service.”

Many critics, however, believe that this is a feeble excuse, and that Verizon, which actively lobbied for the removal of USF charges on broadband internet plans, is merely pulling a cheap trick to divert the money into its own coffers.

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