[asterisk-biz] USF payments

[SIP]

I understand paying USF. That's not an issue.

But, and I will quote the regulations that were quoted to me:

"All telecommunications service providers and certain other providers of 
telecommunications must contribute to the federal USF based on a 
percentage of their INTERSTATE and INTERNATIONAL end-user 
telecommunications revenues."

Anything that doesn't fall under the umbrella of interstate or 
international telecommunication revenue (i.e. E911 connectivity charges, 
DID monthly charges not involving traffic) do NOT fall under the purview 
of valid USF.   Charging a flat rate for ALL money added to the prepay 
account makes them money, surely, but it's not valid USF charges.

It also was never mentioned to us. This is the first month this has ever 
happened, and it's sudden, without notification, and without contractual 
modifications.

It's bad enough that they charge for International termination from the 
start of a call (not from when it's answered), but now they're charging 
a percentage of their own fees as, essentially, fees.

N.

Jai Rangi wrote:
> USF charges are valid, some one has to pay them. USF taxes are pass 
> though and companies often charge their customers for all Origination 
> and Termination. However things that does not fall in origination and 
> termination should not be taxed.
> Example: Say you are using some hosting and consultancy services from 
> Vitelity, that should not be taxed.
>
> -Jai
> www.didforsale.com <http://www.didforsale.com>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 4:31 PM, SIP <sip at arcdiv.com 
> <mailto:sip at arcdiv.com>> wrote:
>
>     Our primary termination/origination carrier (Vitelity) has recently
>     decided to start charging us a USF percentage on every payment we make
>     to them. Keep in mind, 90% of the money we pay them is for
>     administrative fees, not for origination or termination charges on any
>     of the several hundred DIDs which get very little usage.
>
>     Our other two carriers don't do this, but I'm wondering whether or not
>     they're out of the ordinary, or if it's just Vitelity.
>
>     It seems as though USF, which is a pay-for-use fee, should not be
>     allowed to be assessed on administrative and non-traffic-related
>     commerce. It strays away from being a USF charge at that point and
>     becomes a general 'service charge' for non USF-related purposes.
>
>     Have people run into this with other carriers?
>
>     N.
>
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