The following are a list of some of the fees that may be listed on your TCI Communications long distance telephone bill. This list is not comprehensive and may change from time to time. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Customer Service.
1. Payments and Usage Charges
a. Payments. Payments are the amounts you have paid since the previous invoice date.
b. New Usage Charges. New usage charges are charges you have accrued on your account during the billing period stated on the invoice.
2. Governmental Taxes and Surcharges
a. Taxes. These are charges that are required by the government to be assessed to your account and may include federal and state taxes calculated based on the accrued usage on your account.
b. Surcharges. These are charges that TCI Communications is required by the government to remit to the federal and state governments which are passed on and assessed to your account, as allowed by law. These surcharges may include the following:
- Federal Universal Service Fund Charge. The Universal Service Fund Charge is a monthly percentage charge assessed against your account that is designed to recover amounts TCI Communications is required to pay into a federal program called the Universal Service Fund (USF). The USF percentage is set and subject to change each quarter by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The USF program 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 Federal Universal Service Fund Charge is assessed on all interstate and international charges (including usage and non-usage charges) each month, excluding charges for calls that both originate and terminate outside the U.S.
- State Universal Service Fund Charge. The State Universal Service Fund Charge is a monthly charge assessed against your account in specific states where Universal Service Fund assessments are imposed on TCI Communications by those states. If a state USF charge applies to your account, a state-specific USF charge will appear on your bill and will be equal to the state USF percentage then in effect. The State Universal Service Fund Charge is assessed on all intrastate charges (including usage and non-usage charges) each month and are subject to change as determined by the applicable state.
3. Credits, Adjustments, and Other Charges
a. Credits. Credits are invoice credits approved by TCI Communications and provided to your account as a result of any over payments or changes to your invoice.
b. Adjustments. Adjustments are change made to your invoice as a result of a resolved dispute or other change to your amount due.
c. Other Charges. Other charges are other account charges assessed by TCI Communications on your account. These charges are not governmental taxes or surcharges required by the government but are charges that are imposed by TCI Communications. These charges are subject to change without notice and may include the following:
- Monthly Recurring Charge. The monthly amount due on your account, if applicable. This charge applies regardless of whether you accrue usage on your account.
- Late Payment Fee. This fee is a calculated charge that is assessed on your account if your payment was not received by the due date listed on your previous invoice.
- Minimum Usage Charge. This charge applies to your account or each service number if your usage in the previous billing period fell below the minimum usage level as set forth by your long distance rate plan. If your usage does not exceed the minimum usage charge amount, you will be assessed the minimum usage charge.
- Payphone Surcharge. A charge assessed on your account if you make a state-to-state or international call placed from a public or semi-public payphone that is paid for by means other than depositing coins into the payphone. TCI Communications assesses a flat charge for all calls placed in this manner.
- Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee. The Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee (RCRF) helps recover costs associated with providing state-to-state and international long distance service, including expenses for national regulatory fees and programs, and connection and account servicing charges. This fee applies for each month in which you have any state-to-state and/or international charges on your bill. The RCRF is applied in full whether or not customer’s billing period covers a full month.
- Reconnection Fee. A Reconnection Fee is a fee that may be applied if your service has been suspended or restricted due to nonpayment or for other reasons not attributable to TCI Communications and you request to have your TCI Communications service restored.
- Paper Bill Fee. Unless otherwise prohibited by applicable rules or regulations, a Paper Bill Fee is assessed to your account if you choose to receive a monthly paper invoice via mail.
- Return Check Charge. This charge is assessed if a check, bank draft or electronic transfer of yours is returned for insufficient funds or rejected for any other reason by the institution upon which the check, draft or transfer is drawn upon.
- 411 Fee. A 411 Fee is assessed to your account each time you dial '411' to reach an operator.
- Operator Transfer Service Fee. An Operator Transfer Service Fee is a fee that applies to all completed state-to-state and to completed calls to interstate and international Directory Assistance when a caller dials "0", reaches a Local Telephone Company operator, and requests and receives a transfer from the Local Telephone Company network to TCI Communications, and completes the call over the TCI Communications network.
- Operator Dialed Surcharge – International Calls. Operator Assistance and person-to-person international calls are subject to an Operator Dialed Surcharge to help provide for the cost of the use of the operator.
- International Mobile Surcharge. This charge is an additional per minute rate that is applied to certain direct dialed station international calls and calling card international calls originating in the 50 states of America and District of Columbia and terminating in international countries/areas to wireless communications devices including phones, pagers, personal computers and personal digital assistants. In addition, many telecommunications companies outside the United States impose additional fees to complete telephone calls to telephone number ranges associated with special services as designated by the foreign telephone administration. These special services may or may not be wireless. In order to recover these fees, TCI Communications adds a mobile termination charge to all calls completed to the associated number range in the affected countries. This charge varies by country and may be adjusted from time to time.
- Switching Fee. This fee is a one-time fee assessed against your account when your local service provider is changed to a difference local service provider and helps provide for TCI Communications’ costs to facilitate the change.
- Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier Change Fee (PICC Fee). This monthly fee is a per-line access charge that applies to multi-line businesses to recover charges imposed by the FCC, which is billed by local phone carriers to long distance carriers.
- Toll Free Vanity Number Fee. This fee is a non-recurring fee that is charged for each toll free vanity number requested by a toll free customer of TCI Communications.
- Toll Free Port Out Request Charge. This fee is a non-recurring fee that is charged for each toll free port out request made by a toll free customer of TCI Communications who wishes to move their toll free number to a carrier other than TCI Communications.
- Enhanced Routing Charge. This fee is a monthly recurring fee that is assessed against a TCI Communications customer’s account if the customer desires to route calls to the customer’s toll free number to variable "point to" numbers based on originating ANI, time of day, etc., as specified by the customer.
