This surcharge is mandated by local governments to help pay for emergency services. The money collected from this charge is forwarded directly to the appropriate entity (state or county).

This is a monthly tax on access lines which is used for Washington’s behavioral health crisis response & suicide prevention line.

The Federal Universal Service Fund (USF) helps provide affordable telecommunication 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. USF is collected from telecommunications carriers and administered by the Universal Service Administration Corporation (USAC).

This is a fee authorized by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for providing access to, and maintenance of the local telecommunications network. Rate is higher for businesses with multiple lines.

These are taxes assessed by the town or city of which service is being provided and are used to help pay for the cost of essential services, including public safety.

In certain areas of the state, the local phone bill includes an additional monthly fee to cover a network’s upgrade that was ordered by federal law. The upgrade allows customers who switch telephone companies to keep their existing telephone number. This fee is approved by the FCC and varies slightly between companies.

Telephone companies collect federal, state and local sales taxes. These collections are sent to the respective governments that impose the taxes.

The FCC released the USF/ICC Transformation Order which established a number of new rules requiring telecommunication carriers to adjust, over a period of years, many of their switched access charges including a new tariffed Access Recovery Charge (ARC). The ARC allows for the recovery of a limited portion of revenues lost due to the FCC mandated reductions in inter-carrier payments.

This is a monthly fee associated with your Streaming TV subscription. This is charged to offset programming fees.