Yesterday, All Their Troubles Seemed So Far Away, Then They Got Busted Via Webcam For Stealing

FCC Acts Concerned About Telco Doublespeak

from the please-provide-more-doublespeak dept

Fri, Aug 25th 2006 12:31pm — Mike Masnick

We've discussed this week how both Verizon and BellSouth were adding on new "regulatory fees" or "supplier surcharges" that almost exactly matched the Universal Service Fund fees they were no longer required to collect for DSL service. In both cases, the companies tossed out a bunch of meaningless doublespeak about why those fees were legitimate, and weren't just a way to take the money that had previously gone to the useless USF and pocketing it themselves. It was especially egregious since the telcos had lobbied the FCC to get rid of those fees, claiming it would benefit consumers. With so much attention, it appears that the initial doublespeak is a little confusing to the FCC as well, and they've now asked for a bit more info from both telcos, suggesting that these new fees may violate "truth in advertising" laws. Of course, seeing as the telcos seem to have an extra special relationship with the FCC leadership these days, it's unlikely that this new investigation will result in anything.

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6 Comments

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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased), 25 Aug 2006 @ 12:48pm

Great!
The first result is we are going to have an "FCC truth in advertizing" fee on our telco bills.
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Frink, 25 Aug 2006 @ 1:16pm

Just a couple more donations in the right places and the FCC will find that these are legitimate charges and maybe even suggest the Telcos overlooked a few more that could also be tacked on. Business as usual and my bill goes up again. Nothing new here - move on to the next scam.
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Frink, 25 Aug 2006 @ 1:21pm

Re:
From TFA:

"AT&T has agreed to buy BellSouth and needs the FCC to approve the transaction."

The donations I mentioned above will be in addition to the ones needed for this transaction to happen.
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JRED, 25 Aug 2006 @ 1:49pm

CORPORATE GREED
figures
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Riciit, 25 Aug 2006 @ 2:04pm

Telco Doublespeak
I believe that they are all one stinking company and all this bolderdash we see in the news is just a diversion from the real crime they live by.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Aug 2006 @ 10:25pm

well
>it's unlikely that this new investigation will ....

Well, it seems it did after all....:
http://techdirt.com/articles/20060825/145344.shtml
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