I use Airespring for residential long distance (under the Globalfibernet brand name). On my most recent bill, there was a "high cost area surcharge" of a few cents.
The previous bill had mentioned that they would apply this surcharge if a customer's calling patterns to high-cost areas exceeded typical usage, and referred me to their terms of service. The terms said that performing access arbitrage is prohibited, defined as a customer's switching equipment being programmed to route calls to Airespring that cost more for them to place.
This seemed like it was meant for large commercial customers, not individual residential customers. And I wanted to know which number I called counted as high-cost, so I know what my long distance rate actually is. Even though it was just a few cents this month, it could add up to a lot if I make some long calls to the high-cost number.
So I called customer service. The agent couldn't explain what this fee was. She told me it was probably a state or local tax, and that I should google it. I said that was unacceptable -- I needed to know who was charging me this fee and why -- and she said a supervisor would call me back. Someone actually called me back the next day, and left a message and said I'd get a credit on my bill and wouldn't see this charge any more, but she didn't explain what it was or why it happened.
What exactly is this fee? Are long distance companies getting screwed by obscure competitive local phone companies that charge them a lot to place calls to their numbers? Can these charges cost long distance companies more per minute than they charge their customers, and is there any limit to how high they can be? How do unlimited long distance plans handle this issue?
Jimmy