Have You noticed in increase in your Bill

Posts: 49

I have.

Regulatory Recovery Fee $2.97
Emergency 911 Cost Recovery $1.98
Sales Tax $2.10
State 911 Fee $1.80
Federal Universal Service Surcharge $1.59

Looks like Vonage has jumped on the "Ma Bell" bandwagon.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

Yes, it's creeping up all right. Vonage better review their business plan IMHO, or they're likely to start losing customers.

Posts: 241 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Mar 17, 2006 Posts: 241

Can't blame Vonage for the taxes. It's the taxing authorities that are "jumping on," deciding that the taxes that are on everyone's POTS line should be put onto your Vonage bill as well. The most recent tax you're seeing is the Federal Universal Service Surcharge.

If you look back a few months there used to be a federal excise tax that started after the Spanish-American War and was finally stopped.

Posts: 433 · Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 2:26 pm Post subject:

Lose one, gain one.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

pdhenry wrote:

Can't blame Vonage for the taxes.

True, but the recovery fees are another matter.

Posts: 49 · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:10 am Post subject: Recovery Fees

You are correct about the recovery fees.

These are designed to help Vonage recover losses on such Federally mandated items such as their 911 service.

Thousands of hours of overtime were incurred so that Vonage would be able to adhere to the Federal constraints of 911.

The Regulatory Recovery Fee is another way for Vonage to keep prices down because they have to pay lawyers that deal with the various Federal Government agencies.

Posts: 226 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Oct 15, 2006 Posts: 226

"The FCC recently mandated that Voip providers, including Vonage, are required to contribute to the Federal Universal Service Fund (USF). Vonage is committed to complying with this mandate from the FCC. Accordingly, a 5.31% Federal Universal Service Fee will be added to your bill. Vonage does not profit nor benefit in any way from this contribution to the USF. This charge is passed directly to the United States government.

The goals of Universal Service, as mandated by the 1996 Telecommunications Act, are to promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable, and affordable rates; increase access to advanced telecommunications services throughout the Nation and advance the availability of such services to all consumers. For more information please visit http://www.fcc.gov."

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

DJWildBill wrote:

The Regulatory Recovery Fee is another way for Vonage to keep prices down because they have to pay lawyers that deal with the various Federal Government agencies.

I understand where you're coming from, but it does seem amusing to describe a fee as a way to keep prices down <G>.

Posts: 32 · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:23 pm Post subject: new fee

there's a new fee though!
its called the Voip fee or something

Posts: 49 · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:50 pm Post subject: I do not make the rules

I just have to pay the fees since Vonage fired me while I was on disability and unable recover without addtional surgery and now have no medical.