[1st-mile-nm] CenturyLink Hikes 'Internet Cost Recovery' Fee

[John Brown]

In effect these companies are taking COGS and passing them off to the
subscriber as some sort of "fee".

End users have become so accustomed all these nickle and dime fees as
having something to do with governmental fees.

Level 3 is one of the worse commercial carriers for this nickel and
dime stuff.  They charge a fee for property tax recovery in NM.
Yet, I highly doubt that the actual property tax the pay to NM is even
close to the money they collect.  I believe they collect MORE
than what is turned in as property tax.

This yet another reason why we should support local businesses.  Local
ISP's such as
SWCP, CyberMesa, TaosNet, Lobo, CityLink (my firm), and other don't
nickel an dime their subscribers.

On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 2:05 PM, Richard Lowenberg <rl at 1st-mile.org> wrote:
> CenturyLink Hikes Sneaky 'Internet Cost Recovery' Fee
>
> by Karl Bode
> Wednesday Apr 20 2016 10:30 EDT
> http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/CenturyLink-Hikes-Sneaky-Internet-Cost-Recovery-Fee-136766
>
> One of the most misleading practices in the broadband industry is the tactic
> of adding sneaky, below the line fees to artificially keep the advertised
> rate the same. It's effectively a form of false advertising, in that
> consumers sign up for one rate, then wind up paying significantly more after
> an ISP saddles their bills with various nonsensical fees. Many of these
> fees, like the "regulatory recovery fee" or broadcast TV fee are simply the
> cost of doing business, and are not government mandated despite being
> designed to sound like it.
>
> Given that regulators have turned a blind eye to this practice for fifteen
> years (longer if you're talking about POTS), many companies don't even try
> very hard when trying to make up such fees.
>
> Case in point is CenturyLink, who for a few years now has been charging its
> customers something called an "Internet cost recovery fee." This is the
> explanation for the fee CenturyLink provides over at the CenturyLink
> website:
>
> quote:
> This fee helps defray costs associated with building and maintaining
> CenturyLink's High-Speed Internet broadband network, as well as the costs of
> expanding network capacity to support the continued increase in customers'
> average broadband consumption.
>
> The problem is...that's what the rest of your bill is for. Again, all
> CenturyLink is doing is using a misleading fee to artificially keep
> advertised rates low(er). Were regulators doing their jobs this wouldn't be
> allowed. But since they're not, CenturyLink is notifying users that it plans
> to double the fee to $4 starting this month. Not only do such fees let ISPs
> falsely advertise a lower rate, it lets them falsely claim that they haven't
> technically hiked their broadband prices in "x" years.
>
> Such fees also aren't included when calculating international broadband
> price comparisons, meaning that rankings that suggest that Americans pay
> more for broadband than most developed countries -- are actually probably
> low-balling the estimate.
>
> (I now pay $1.99 for this fee, but have not yet seen notice of increase.
> RL)
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
> 1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
> Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
> rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
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