The Universal Service Fund fee for interstate and International calls will be raised from 11% 4th Quarter 2009 to 15.3% for second quarter 2010. This increase translates to lots of additional cost for call centers and companies with high state to state usage. And, it applies to wireless traffic, too.
The USF -- established by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 -- subsidizes phone service for schools, libraries, rural health care organization and low-income subscribers. This charge has been steadily increasing from 9.5% in the first quarter of 2009.
However, this fee does NOT apply to most carrier-provided IP voice. So, not is a good time to review current telecom expenditures and consider the switch from TDM to IP-based voice services.
About Telecoworks
- Valerie Brauckman Burgess
- I was recruited by Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) almost twenty years ago as General Manager of its Video Dial Tone rollout. VDT deployment was the forerunner of Verizon's FiOS and delivered television programming over fiber via the public switched network. Since that time, I have become a local voice and data expert specializing in VOIP, SIP and switched Ethernet deployments. After leaving Verizon, I was hired as AT&T's East Coast Global Business Development Manager responsible for selling and deploying local voice services to AT&T's long distance and data Enterprise customers. After leaving AT&T,I managed several CLEC's indirect sales channel before launching my business in 2001. TelecoWorks is an independent telecom consulting firm representing all of the major telecom carriers in the marketplace today. Geared to successfully support businesses navigating new voice and data technologies, TelecoWorks' goal is to improve a company's connectivity, enhance their business processes, and ultimately save them money.