[ Tuesday ]
Bell South Disguises Price Increases
Stealth DSL Price Increases Loom
By Jim Hu
CNET News.com
April 6, 2004, 4:00 AM PT
Local phone companies advertising steep discounts for high-speed Internet access are beginning to assess new "regulatory" fees that would effectively increase monthly costs by 10 percent or more for some customers.
BellSouth will begin assessing a "regulatory cost recovery fee" of $2.97 a month for its DSL (digital subscriber line) services on April 15, a company representative said Monday. As a result, its least expensive service, advertised at $29.95 a month, will in fact cost $32.92, plus other taxes and fees.
The new fee will offset payments to the federal Universal Service Fund (USF), which underwrites the costs of telephone service for rural and low-income areas, as well as other regulatory costs the phone giant previously picked up. USF charges typically apply to all phone and DSL lines and are usually disclosed in a separate line on a phone bill.
more...
MM [05:00]
![[Link to THOMAS Home Page]](http://thomas.loc.gov/images/link.gif)
