We're getting Fios installed

MikkiStreak · July 30, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angel

I guess they are standard charges for having a phone line. I'm going to have to look at the bill when I get home and tell you exactly what they are but it's like $1 here and $1 there for like 10 different things which adds up. But then again it may just be a VA thing, and it's mainly for having a phone. I don't think any fees are cable or internet related. And we just an insert from them saying that some fees are increasing.

I'm glad you posted that. We have fios in the area we're moving to and thought about switching. One of the concerns I had, is that since Verizon is a telecom company- that their phone service would still have the same federal surcharges and fees that a traditional land-line would have. Which, here is Dallas, the surcharges for a traditional phone line can take a bill from $25 for the line itself up to $50 with all the charges in it.

We had Verizon DSL for the first year in the place where we're at now, and it was great until I needed to switch my router from using a ethernet port to a USB port. Jesus, one full month of calling and being walked through the same flipping "script" their tech support has and they still couldn't fix it. They sent us 3 routers because that's all their "script" told them to do. I kept explaining to them I did all the loopback tests, and they were dropping data packets on their end before it even hit the router and needed to send a real tech on site to fix it. Never happened. When I called to cancel after fighting with them, only THEN did they offer a field tech to come on site.

I don't know if I would have the patience to deal with their tech support morons if the service had problems. We'll probably stick with dish, cable modem and VoIP for phone in the new place....

Angel · July 31, 2008

Ok, so here is the rundown of the Taxes, Fees & Other charges on my recent bill. It totals a little over $20

Federal $.20

E-911 $.75

VA Cost Recovery Surcharge $.17

VA Federal Universal Service Fund Surcharge $.73

VA Communications Sales Tax $1.87

VA Public Rights-of-Way Use Fee $.67

Federal Subscriber Line Charge $6.50

Long Distance VA Communications Sales Tax $.15

Long Distance Federal Universal Service Fee $.26

PEG Grant Fee $1.24

States Sales Tax $2.35

VA Communications Sales Tax $3.94

VA Billing Surcharge $.19

Tax State $.72

It adds up and I don't know what any of this stuff is for. Every time I see the bill I'm like WTF! It's crazy.

MikkiStreak · July 31, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angel

Ok, so here is the rundown of the Taxes, Fees & Other charges on my recent bill. It totals a little over $20
Federal $.20
E-911 $.75
VA Cost Recovery Surcharge $.17
VA Federal Universal Service Fund Surcharge $.73
VA Communications Sales Tax $1.87
VA Public Rights-of-Way Use Fee $.67
Federal Subscriber Line Charge $6.50
Long Distance VA Communications Sales Tax $.15
Long Distance Federal Universal Service Fee $.26
PEG Grant Fee $1.24
States Sales Tax $2.35
VA Communications Sales Tax $3.94
VA Billing Surcharge $.19
Tax State $.72
It adds up and I don't know what any of this stuff is for. Every time I see the bill I'm like WTF! It's crazy.

Those are the state and federal charges the government added LONG ago when the telecom networks were still being built nationwide. If you ever see a bill/petition going around talking about how the government needs to lift these taxes--- sign it to abolish the charges. Until an amendment is added to the original bill, these will stay in place and keep jumping people's bills up.

The only way around them is to have phone service via an internet provider. VoIP doesn't have all the taxes/surcharges. (but that can get difficult too because your internet bandwidth affects the quality of your service)

Bianca · July 31, 2008

We had FIOS in our old house, our new house is wired with internet that is also supposed to be fiber optic. We went from dial up to FIOS so we loved it. My dad never thought broadband was worth it til he used FIOS. He would get so mad when it was down and he had to use dial up! lol