FUSF - Federal Universal Service Fund

You may have noticed this charge on your telephone or DSL bill. This is a fee imposed by the U.S. Government to all providers of interstate telecommunication services, including Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Lake Tahoe On Line.

The fees are collected and used to provide telecommunication services to folks with low incomes, schools, libraries, rural areas and other places where providing telephone service is expensive. It works on a trickle down system -- large backbone providers charge their customers FUSF fees, who charge their customers and so on until a consumer is charged.

After much speculation, this month the government rescinded the FUSF program for DSL circuits. As we are no longer being charged FUSF for our DSL, LTOL has passed on the savings to our customers. DSL customers will not see an FUSF line item on their September bills.

If you follow the news, you might see articles about Verizon and other large telecommunication providers coming under fire for continuing to charge their customers the same fees. Instead of passing the savings onto their customers, they have repackaged the FUSF fee, calling it a line service, recovery fee or supplier surcharge.

It is more than a little confusing as other telecommunication services, such as AGG circuits and IP feeds, are receiving increases in FUSF. Not all ISPs have indicated what they will do about the end of FUSF, but LTOL DSL customers will see the savings soon.