The Federal Communications Commission will implement the Call Home Act, passed by Congress to cut the cost of long distance phone service for military personnel.

"We remain committed to taking any action we can to help keep our military families connected with friends and family at home," the FCC announced this week.

Congress passed and President Bush signed S. 2653 in December - ”"A bill to direct the Federal Communications Commission to make efforts to reduce telephone rates for Armed Forces personnel deployed overseas."

The FCC will initially follow through on this mandate by no longer requiring phone companies to charge Universal Service Fund (USF) and Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) tolls on Armed Forces personnel collect calls, or those made with pre- and post-paid calling cards,

The USF funds telephone service for low income families; TRS finances and regulates telecommunications services for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

"Exempting calls made by Armed Forces personnel stationed and deployed abroad from current USF and TRS contribution obligations will provide clear benefits to our dedicated Armed Forces personnel, which far outweigh any potential costs," the FCC declared in its Thursday, January 18th Order. "And to ensure that Armed Forces personnel benefit from our actions, we emphasize that providers of such calls should flow through any cost savings in the form of lower prices."

While the FCC's statement clearly outlines what the agency expects, the Order is less precise on how to make sure that phone service providers who stop charging the tolls will pass the savings along to GIs and other military personnel.

It does warn carriers that the Commission retains "the discretion to evaluate contributions and determine on a case-by-case basis whether waste, fraud, or abuse has occurred and whether corrective action is necessary."

In addition, the Act authorizes the FCC to seek agreements with foreign governments to reduce surcharges on international calls.

The agency also announced that it will soon launch a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on how to further implement the Call Home Act, focusing on the phone service fees that GIs pay in Iraq and Afghanistan. The public can file e-mail comments with the FCC on this matter at .

Military organizations and prominent retired generals have for years filed comments with the FCC protesting various fees attached to long distance calls, which boost the already high rates for calls made by overseas soldiers to their friends and families in the U.S.

The Non-Commissioned Officers Association of the United States and the Association of the United States Army filed complaints in 2005 and 2004 on this matter, as did Bernard "Matt" Dillon, President of the American Military Retirees Association.

"I implore you, the FCC commissioners, to resist the internal bureaucratic impulses to reregulate these vital services to the detriment of our brave military service personnel who are fighting daily for our freedom around the world," Dillon wrote to the Commission in November of 2004. "They deserve all the help we can give them."