Understanding Your Bill

Your phone bill contains taxes, fees, and surcharges assessed by federal, state, and local governments. Below is a summary of the charges you may see on your bill.

    • FUSF - Federal Universal Service Fund Surcharge

      • This fund is administered by the FCC and supports telephone and broadband networks in rural and high-cost areas. It also ensures that schools, libraries and rural hospitals have reliable broadband. All telecommunications providers are required to contribute to the fund based on a percentage of their interstate and international revenue.  Providers are permitted to recover their contributions to the fund from their end users by way of a FUSF surcharge.  The surcharge is a percentage of all interstate and international long-distance charges on your monthly bill and the FCC can change the percentage quarterly.

    • FCC Regulatory Fee

      • This fee is administered by the FCC to recover the costs of carrying out its functions. These functions include enforcement activities, policy and rulemaking activities, user information services, and international activities.  

    • Federal Excise Tax

      • This is a 3% tax assessed by the IRS on local-only telephone service.

    • E911 Fee

      • This fund supports the upgrade and maintenance of the statewide Enhanced 9-1-1 system. The amount charged is set by the New Hampshire Enhanced 911 Commission at 1 dollar per telephone number, per month, as of March 2025.

    • Utility Users Tax

      • This is a 7% tax on all 2-way communication services.

    • Telecommunications Sales Tax

      • The Vermont sales and use tax is a 6% tax on telecommunication services.

    • State Universal Service Fund

      • The Universal Service Charge (USC) helps fund improvements to Vermont’s telecommunications services, including broadband Internet service, to keep it affordable for Vermonters. Beginning on July 1, 2025, the rate of the USC will be $0.72 for each retail access line in service. The USC is in addition to the State sales tax.

    • Local Option Tax (Sales Tax - Locality)

      • In some municipalities, a local option tax of 1% is assessed on telecommunication services. The local option tax is a way for municipalities in Vermont to raise additional revenue.

    • E911 Fee

      • This fund supports the upgrade and maintenance of the statewide Enhanced 9-1-1 system. The amount charged is set by the State Legislature at 35 cents per telephone number, per month, as of January 2020.

    • ConnectME Fund Assessment

      • The Maine Legislature approved this fund to support broadband projects in unserved and underserved areas in Maine. Support for this fund comes from an assessment of 0.25% of the revenue collected from in-state phone service toward this fund, which must be collected from the customer on a monthly basis.

    • ConnectME-Statewide Broadband Surcharge

      • The Maine Legislature approved this fund to support broadband projects in unserved and underserved areas in Maine. Support for this fund comes from an assessment of 10 cents per line or number, which must be collected from the customer on a monthly basis.

    • Maine Universal Service Fund Surcharge

      • The Maine Legislature established this fund to ensure telephone service is available in rural and high-cost areas. In addition, the MUSF provides support for other uses and services such as the Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS), Communications Equipment Fund (CEF), Blind and Visually Impaired News Access Fund, and the Public Interest Payphone (PIP) program.. The current monthly amount charged is 44 cents per telephone number. 

    • School and Library Fund Surcharge

      • This fund is used to provide schools and libraries with access to telephone service, internet access and technology. Under statute, this monthly fee can be no higher than 21 cents per telephone number.

    • State Provider Tax

      • This is the Maine sales tax for telecom services. 5.5%

  • State Tax on Tax

    • Many states consider Federal surcharges/fees as taxable. If you notice the state tax charged is larger than the percentage you expect, this is why.