Billing Information

With 10-10-719, there is a low connection fee of 59¢ per call. The 11.9% LEC Billing Fee, an 11.4% USF (Universal Service Fund Fee) and taxes apply.

The LEC Billing Fee is assessed on your interstate and international dial-around calls and equals 11.9% of your interstate and international call charges. The fee recovers the cost of billing through your local exchange carrier. It is assessed only in months in which you use the 10-10-719 service. Thus, if you do not use the service you will not be assessed the fee.. This fee is not a tax or a charge required by the government.

The Universal Service Fund (USF) helps provide affordable telecommunications services for low-income customers and customers in rural areas. It also provides discounts on Internet access for eligible schools, libraries and rural health care providers. The USF is collected from telecommunications carriers and administered by the Universal Service Administration Corporation. They are responsible for disbursing the funds according to eligibility criteria established by the FCC.

In May of 1997, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules that mandated that telecommunications carriers pay into a federal program called the Universal Service Fund (USF). Startec and other telecommunications carriers are required by the FCC, to pay a percentage of their revenues for state-to-state and international services into the Universal Service Fund. The FCC sets this percentage on a quarterly basis. In the competitive industry we are in, we cannot afford to absorb the costs associated with the USF that have been imposed by the FCC. Startec is allowed to pass through these charges to customers by charging the 11.4% Universal Service Fund Fee, the percentage set by the FCC.