Just What Are Carriers Doing With Federal Recovery Fees?

from the good-question dept

Last year we wrote about the increasing practice of stealth inflation on telecom bills, where the telecom company would hide rate increases by adding official looking fees such as the "federal recovery fee" that look as though they're required by the government, when the truth is anything but that. Now, found over at Broadband Reports, comes the news that a consumer advocacy group is asking the FCC to take a more active role in regulating those fees. For example, they point out that nearly a billion dollars has been collected in fees related to number portability, but there's no data on what that's being used for, or even how many people have benefited from number portability. The group isn't objecting to the fees completely, but believes that the wireless carriers should be more open about what they're collecting these fees for, and how the money is actually being put to use.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.