Some of you have already seen the old and altered message about the Internet service access charges with the date of Feb 13, 1998 (altered from 1998). I searched high and low for information and I turned to my ISP server owners this evening (yes they work like crazy on holidays) and got the very clear answer and it is same information I have seen at FCC. What my server owner said summarized and very clear what is at issue.... here is his reply.... All business telephone customers are going to have to start paying additional fees for the Universal Service Fund and for local access charges. In Utah, residential customers with more than two lines will also have to pay these charges. Neither of these is specific to ISP's and neither is charged per minute. It ends up being around $3 per month per line. The local access charges are increasing because the access charges long-distance companies pay to local telcos are being decreased, resulting in a multi-million dollar revenue reduction. In effect, costs are being shifted from a charge hidden in your long distance bill to a direct charge that you can see. The Universal Service Fund fees are going up to pay for connecting all schools and libraries to the Internet. I don't know of any per-minute charges being contemplated for POTS.. US West seems to be backing away from that idea, given that they own an ISP. Most other RBOCS are also backing away from per-minute charges as they realize the public dislike for that. There is some hope, BTW. I went to a meeting a few weeks ago with US West and some other ISP's. We wanted to meet with US West to discuss some of these regulatory issues and to offer some suggestions for dealing with the "call blocking" problem that is cropping up downtown. US West appears to be changing their position on number of issues in ways that are more favorable to ISP's. Maybe it has dawned on them that ISP's are good customers that order a lot of services. If they're nice to us they could make a lot of money from us. (downtown - referred to Salt Lake City downtown district) ------ This is what the most expensive phone company in US, Ameritech is asking for as quoted in Chicago newspapers, as quoted in the http://www.fcc.gov website, and that is what the FCC decided on last summer. When ever you see the old and altered message about Internet service access charges - feel free to send then sender this message. Now can we get back to the genealogy? W. David Samuelsen, listowner