Through August 14, Verizon DSL had been charging many of its customers a fee of $1.25 or $2.83, a contribution to a fund benefiting service in lower-income and rural areas. The government charged this required fee to Verizon, and Verizon passed along the cost to the customers.
After August 14, the government stopped charging Verizon this fee, but the company is still “passing along” the cost to customers. It will use the proceeds to “subsidize connection costs” rather than duplicate the former government fund.
Consumerist had the scoop, and CNN is reporting it now.
Updated February 10, 2011 and originally published August 22, 2006. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
“Subsidize connection costs”? So does that mean “stuffing the pockets of the CEO” or what? How are they allowed to get away with that? And how can someone like me do anything to put a stop to it? I know it may seem like such a little amount of money, but take that times how many millions of customers they serve, and that’s a LOT of money!
p.s. thanks for commenting on my blog. ;-)
This is very peculiar. Verizon already contracts for its data circuits to carry DSL service, so they don’t really have to charge an extra supplier fee. That should be built into your monthly charge. To get rid of the FUSF Recovery fee ($1.55 on my monthly bill) and then charge a fake charge is silly. I wonder if I can file a dispute and notify the FCC with a complaint?
Here is more information on the Verizon plan.
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/51834
You realize The Onion is a joke news site, right? Still, fiction isn’t too far from the truth…