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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Telecommunications fee
funds services at schools
Question: I received my statement from Verizon Hawaii and noticed an increase in the "Federal Universal Service Fund," which is now 67 cents. In December, it was 54 cents. In January, it went up to 60 cents. I called and was told it was for the education of Hawaii's children. When you multiply it by the thousands, it comes up to a lot of money. Is Hawaii's Board of Education aware of this? Also, can a company arbitrarily raise its fees without notifying its customers by mail first?
Answer: The Federal Communications Commission requires all telecommunications companies that provide interstate (long-distance) service to pay a Federal Universal Service Fund surcharge, which may change each quarter.
The surcharge is also known as the Federal Universal Service Fee (PLNI), Universal Connectivity Charge (AT&T) and Universal Service Carrier Charge (Sprint).
The commission does not require that the surcharge be passed directly on to consumers, but says that many companies do so.
The money collected for this fund is used to support telecommunications services to schools, public libraries and rural health-care facilities. It also subsidizes service to high-cost areas and low-income customers.
The money collected is administered by the nonprofit Universal Service Administrative Co. Information is available at the company's Web site: www.universalservice.org/default.asp.
The fund was known as the Universal Service Fund for Schools and Libraries when it was created in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Recipients, including public and private schools, public libraries and health-care facilities, as well as low-income families, apply to get discounts on telecommunications services, Internet access and internal connections.
In 1998, U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka announced that 32 public schools and libraries in Hawaii would receive $404,172 in discounts from the fund. They were among 3,000 institutions nationwide selected to be the fund's first recipients.
According to the USAC's annual report to Congress in 2002, Hawaii received a total of $6,656,000 in support last year, and a total of $18,084,000 between 1998 and 2002. In 2002, the USAC collected $5.27 million from 2,174 service providers across the U.S. and disbursed $5.3 million.
The FCC reviews the rate quarterly, and it is subject to change quarterly, depending on the fund's projected needs, explained Ann Nishida, spokeswoman for Verizon Hawaii.
She said Verizon does not get any additional revenue from the surcharge and does not determine how the money is spent. Last year, Verizon paid $4.73 million into the fund.
Nishida gave an example of how Verizon Hawaii calculates the surcharge. For a residential customer with a single telephone line, the primary line charge ($6) is added to the local number portability fee (36 cents) and multiplied by the FUSF rate (which was .091 for the second quarter of 2003): $6 + 36 cents = $6.36 x .091 = 58 cents.
If a customer has an additional line, such as a separate phone line or dial-up, the nonprimary line charge is $7, so the surcharge is calculated this way: $7 + 36 cents = $7.36 x .091 = 67 cents. The total FUSF surcharge for two lines would be 58 cents plus 67 cents for a total of $1.25.
The FUSF surcharge for January, February and March of 2003 was 60 cents for a single residential line; in April, it was reduced to 58 cents, Nishida said.
Regarding notification, the FCC requires Verizon to notify customers whenever there is a fee increase, which Verizon does via bill messages, Nishida said. Verizon does not generally notify customers when the rate is decreased.
Leasecomm settlement
Some Hawaii residents may benefit from a $24 million settlement the Federal Trade Commission has reached with Leasecomm, a finance company based in Boston, according to the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.The FTC and an eight-state task force (not including Hawaii) charged that the company used shady agents, deceptive contracts and false claims to rack up $24 million in judgments against would-be entrepreneurs.
"Leasecomm knowingly participated in a scheme that used the 'get-rich-quick' allure of selling products on the Internet to take advantage of thousands of consumers who were ultimately forced into debt," according to Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly.
According to the FTC, Leasecomm sued more than 27,000 consumers nationally for failing to pay their debts in the past three years in Massachusetts courts. As of January, 2,200 suits were pending. Few customers could afford fight the claim in Massachusetts, so most suffered default judgments.
Affected consumers should check the FTC Web site www.ftc.gov/ro/leasecomm/index.htm or call 202-326-3445.
Mahalo
To two kind people who came to the aid of my mom and dad. On May 26, Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Ho from Alewa Heights helped my parents, Joe and Billie Lee, at the old Moanalua Cemetery. When mom fainted, the Hos helped dad get her to the car, where he was able to revive her. The presence of these two folks provided the support dad needed to help mom and get her home. -- Nani Lee
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