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."

Two members of the Federal Communications Commission have publicly acknowledged Verizon and BellSouth's move to drop a controversial DSL charge.

"I am pleased that both Verizon and BellSouth have eliminated fees recently imposed on their DSL customers," FCC Chair Kevin Martin said in a statement released yesterday. "Consumers should receive the benefits of the Commission's action last summer to remove regulations imposed on DSL service."

FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate issued a similar press release.

The Washington Post reported last Friday that the FCC had sent letters to the two phone service providers asking why they had added the $1.20 or $2.70 charges, given the agency's recent decision to release their high speed Internet divisions from having to contribute to the Universal Service Fund (USF). The USF subsidizes basic phone service for the poor.

The Federal Communications Commission has found sixteen phone companies guilty as charged for "slamming"—switching a customers' phone service without getting their permission first. The culprits include NECC Telecom, CSP Telecom, Cavalier Telephone, QWest, Netone International, Excel, Discounted Telecommunications, Business Network Long Distance, and Startec Global.

The commission also dismissed slamming complaints against Lotus Communications, Talk America, and Buzz Telecom.

Following the Telecommunications Act of 1996, hundreds of new phone companies began competing for customers, or, in many instances, stealing them by using access to Local Exchange Carrier databases.

In response to thousands of customer complaints, in 1998 the FCC established strict rules forbidding phone services from grabbing customers without their permission. Punishment for guilty parties include:

• absolving the customer of all unpaid charges levied by the slammer for the first thirty days of service
• requiring the slammer to pay 150% of those charges to the authorized carrier
• refunding the customer 50% of all charges paid to the unauthorized phon
  

The FCC wants to clarify the kinds of Internet services that schools and libraries can receive from the agencys "E-Rate" program. Officially known as the "Schools and Libraries Program," E-Rate funds cover much of the costs of providing telecommunications and Internet access for public school students, library patrons, and school and library employees. The money comes from the FCCs Universal Service Fund (USF).

The new pleading cycle, opened yesterday by the FCC, seeks public comment on what kind of services and equipment should remain on E-Rates "eligible services list," which currently includes everything from phone jacks to firewalls.

The July 21st notice emphasizes that the proceeding "is limited to determining what services are eligible under the Commission’s current rules; it is not intended to be a vehicle for changing any eligibility rules." But the cycle begins as an educational services vendor and a school are contesting recent FCC decisions limiting their access to the E-Rate program.

• On July 19th the FCC granted a petition for review to Henkels & McCoy, a vendor providing computer equipment and services to the school district of Little Rock, Arkansas. The FCCs Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) ruled in September 2005 that Henkels had billed the USF for equipment not covered by E-Rate, including cable TV tuners, training software, and teacher training. The decision reduced Henkels compensation from the FCC by $178,326.20.

  The FCC has asked USAC to reconsider their ruling. "We question some of USAC’s findings regarding Henkels’ descriptions of the products and services it invoiced and find that USAC could have conducted a more detailed inquiry to determine whether the products or services were eligible," the Commission said.

Three weeks after the FCC ruled that it would not depart from a progressive, revenue based collection system for the Universal Service Fund (USF) at this time, CTIA—the Wireless Association, continues to lobby for a flat, "numbers based" system for the USF.

On July 17th, two CTIA Vice-Presidents, Christopher Guttman-McCabe and Paul Garnett, met with two legal advisors to Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, urging the Commission to implement "a numbers-based universal service contribution mechanism that addresses the concerns of low-income and low average revenue per unit customers."

The latest stunt is an online calculator that looks like a cell phone. It asks for your monthly cell phone bill, the number of cell phones in your house, your land line bill, and the total number of connected devices that you have: fax, VOiP, online games, etc.

Enter the data and, voila! The calculator estimates how much more you will have to pay if the FCC begins collecting money for the Universal Service Fund (USF) using a flat "by the numbers" tax, rather than by taxing long distance use.

"The proposed flat-fee plan for USF would give large corporate long distance users a big tax break and consumers like you with more than one phone number a whopper of a tax hike!" the calculator page concludes.

In an effort to raise the Universal Service Funds (USF) declining revenue base, the FCC has ruled that VOiP phone service must be taxed to support the program, which subsidizes basic phone service for the poor.

The FCC announced the decision at todays Open Meeting. Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, who has focused on the viability of the fund, praised the move.

"While I continue to advocate a light regulatory touch for nascent services like VoIP, it is essential that important goals like universal service are implemented in an equitable and non-discriminatory manner," Tate said.