Verizon Wireless customers are being surcharged on a monthly basis by Verizon Wireless for fees that the company is required to pay to help fund programs, etc. The surcharge is broken down into 3 categories but only listed as one surcharge on the consumers bill.

The first surcharge is the Federal Universal Service Charge. The FCC mandates that Verizon Wireless as well as other carriers pay into the Federal Universal Service Fund. This is service fund that wireless companies must pay into and rather than pay this from their profits they surcharge their customers so they can recover some or all of what they have to pay. They disclose this as a Federal Universal Service Charge but it is not a tax or mandated by the government on the consumer. The current rate is 3.66 of assessed charges on the consumers bill.

The second surcharge is the Regulatory Charge, which Verizon Wireless describes this as a charge that helps defray Verizon Wireless' ongoing cost of complying with various regulatory mandates. This is not a tax or mandated by the government on the consumer but a charge Verizon has to pay and passes onto the consumer. It is charged for all Voice, Email and Broadband plans on a per line per month basis.

The third charge is called the Administrative Charge and is currently 99cents per line per month for Voice and Email plans and 6 cents per line per month for Mobile Broadband. This is a charge that Verizon Wireless describes as helping to defray costs they incur or their agents pay local companies for delivering calls to their customers and various other items such as new cell site construction, local number portability. Once again, this charge is NOT a tax or mandate by the government on the consumer.

When combined and depending upon the total number of phone lines associated with your account these charges could range anywhere from $10 or more per month and is in addition to the normal monthly taxes that the consumer must pay.

If you are a Verizon Wireless customer, tell them to STOP passing on their responsibilities to YOU the consumer. Sign this petition. If you are a customer of another Wireless company, hopefully this petition, if successful, will have your wireless company following suit.