Local Phone Service Surcharges

Federal Subscriber Line Charge (SLC)

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires that local telephone companies recover a portion of the costs of the facilities we use to connect your home or business for services through a monthly assessment on all residential and business customers. Commonly known as the federal "subscriber line charge," this assessment is part of the FCC's effort to promote a competitive framework for the U.S. telecom industry. The federal SLC is a flat monthly charge assessed directly on your bill.

The FCC established the federal SLC as a way to reduce the "access charges" paid by long-distance companies but still compensate local companies for the use of our networks by those carriers to gain "access" to their customers. Prior to the establishment of the SLC, long-distance carriers were assessed a per-minute "access" charge to use our facilities, but the FCC changed the way we charge for that cost. For purposes of competition, the FCC decided to target end-user customers more directly for these costs. As a result, the SLCs result in no additional revenue for local telephone companies.

Federal Universal Service Charge (FUSC)

The "Federal Universal Service Charge" (FUSC), also authorized by the FCC, is not part of your local service rate; the charge helps to keep rates affordable for all Americans, regardless of where they live. The amount of the FUSC on your monthly bill depends on the services you order and the number of telephone lines you have. Generally, the surcharge is applied per line.

The federal Universal Service Fund assists with the costs of providing "affordable" telecommunications service to low-income individuals and to residents in rural, high-cost areas. In addition, Congress has expanded the program to help schools, libraries, and rural health care providers obtain leading-edge services, such as high-speed Internet access. All providers of telecom services contribute to the support of these universal service programs.

Illinois Univerisal Service Charge

In addition to the federal programs, some states collect fees to support their own universal service programs. Like other telecom providers in Illinois (IL), we collect fees for the IL Universal Service Fund that is administered by the (IL PUC). The IL Universal Service Charge supports universal service programs within our state. Most, if not all, telecom providers in the state contribute to the IL Universal Service Fund to help keep basic local rates affordable for everyone in the state.

The (IL PUC) has authorized telecom providers to recover their universal service contributions through a customer charge. The (PUC) uses the IL Universal Service Fund to ensure that community based companies in high-cost areas have sufficient financial support to keep basic local rates affordable for all IL citizens. As with the federal support program, the IL Universal Service Fund is distributed to individual companies based on the costs we incur in serving our particular areas of the state.

E 911 Charge

The E-911 charge is a state/local government charge to fund emergency-911 services, such as fire and rescue.

Local Number Portability (LNP) Charge

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires that telecom providers allow customers to keep their existing telephone numbers when they switch from one service provider to another. The Local Number Portability (LNP) charge is a fixed, monthly charge established by the FCC to allow local companies to recover some of our costs to provide telephone number "portability" to customers.

A. Local telephone companies offer Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) to help hearing- or speech-impaired individuals communicate via the telephone. This prints as "Hearing Impaired" on your Adams bill. TRS is required by Title IV of the Americans with Disabilities Act and to the extent possible, must be "functionally equivalent" to standard telephone services. Communications assistants (CAs) relay the content of calls between users of special text telephones (TTYs) and users of traditional telephones. For example, a TTY user can use the phone by calling a TRS provider (or relay center), where a CA will place the call to the voice user and relay the conversation by transcribing spoken content for the TTY user and reading text aloud for the voice user.

Costs for intrastate TRS (that is, TRS calls made within a state) are paid by the individual states. Generally, states recover the TRS costs through a small assessment on all telephone customers in the state.

Federal Excise Taxes

Your bill includes the 3% federal excise tax levied by the federal government that applies to all telecom services, not just local service. This tax dates back to 1898 when it was enacted to finance the Spanish-American War. In addition, many state, local, and/or municipal governments impose taxes on telecom services and, if applicable, these taxes are listed on your bill. In some states, these charges may appear as a "gross receipts" or "franchise" tax.

Long Distance Service Surcharges

Federal Universal Service Charge

This charge (also called the Federal Universal Connectivity Fee or Carrier Universal Service Charge) is similar to the FUSC for local service. All telecom providers, including long-distance companies, are required to contribute to the support of federal universal service.