Verizon stops excise tax on long distance, bundles
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Verizon Communications  said on  Tuesday it stopped collecting a 3 percent federal excise tax on  monthly bills for long-distance services and those bundled with  wireless and Web-based services.
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Verizon Communications Inc. VZ.N   said on Wednesday it had dropped a surcharge for high-speed   Internet service after U.S. regulators questioned whether the   No. 2 U.S. telephone carrier was following truthful billing   practices.
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Verizon Wireless and Sprint (NYSE: FON) are giving their customers a break, cutting their fees for number portability, which the carriers have charged all customers to meet the costs of enabling wireless users to keep their phone numbers when they switch service providers.
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Verizon Wireless on Tuesday withdrew its opposition to a plan that would give Nextel Communications Inc. (NXTL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) valuable new wireless airwaves
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A proposal backed by a coalition of telephone carriers would cut billions of dollars in fees owed by long-distance companies to regional phone giants but would allow the regional companies to make up some of the difference by raising monthly phone bills for millions of consumers. -The Washington Post
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U.S. communications regulators gave  AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc the go-ahead on Friday  to more closely combine their local and long-distance  businesses without being subject to additional regulations.
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Wireless carriers are fighting state and local laws that, in their view, force them to "hide" government taxes and fees from their customers. So far, they haven't been totally successful.
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In an Aug. 29 story about a permanent injunction against a Rhode Island man who sent unsolicited text messages to Verizon Wireless cell phone customers, The Associated Press erroneously reported the date of the federal court action. The injunction was granted Aug. 23, not Aug. 27.
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Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay a penalty and reimburse users who were disconnected for "excessive" use of a cellular broadband service that was marketed as allowing "unlimited" use, New York's state attorney general announced Tuesday.
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(InfoWorld) - Three Republican U.S. senators on Thursday called on Congress to pass a permanent Internet tax ban before a moratorium expires Nov. 1. The current Internet tax moratorium, which Congress has extended twice since 1998, bans taxes on Internet access, as well as other taxes unique to the Internet. It's important for Congress to pass a permanent ban soon before state and local governments begin to tax Internet access, said Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican. Those who wonder what impact Internet taxes could have should look to U.S. telephone and mobile phone bills, where taxes are up to 20 percent of the cost, McCain said. "We cannot allow that to happen to the Internet -- likely the most popular invention since the light bulb," McCain said at a press conference. Several senators, many of them former state governors, have opposed a permanent extension of the tax ban. Earlier this year, Senators Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, and Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat, introduced a bill that would narrow the moratorium's definition of Internet access and extend the ban for four years. That bill would close what supporters have called a loophole allowing telecom providers to argue that voice and other services bundled with Internet service shouldn't be taxed. In addition, nine states that were allowed to maintain their Internet taxes would lose a total of up to $120 million a year under a House of Representatives version of the moratorium extension, The National Governors Association has argued. The House version of the moratorium bill strips these states' exemptions. If Congress makes the ban permanent, nothing would stop Internet providers from trying to expand the number of untaxed services, David Quam, director of federal relations for The National Governors Association, said in June. "The temporary provision keeps everyone honest," Quam said then. But Senator John Sununu, a New Hampshire Republican, argued Thursday that a permanent ban is needed. If there's a problem with bundled services, that can be worked out in the bill, he said. The Internet is "critically important to interstate and global commerce," Sununu said. "It makes no sense to have a national and global communications and business network to be subject to taxes by every state, city, and county in the country." The news conference came a day after the American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance, an advocacy group, sent letters to Congress calling on lawmakers to extend the tax ban. New Internet taxes would hurt telecommuters and home-based businesses, the group said. Supporters of a permanent ban say it will help more U.S. residents connect to the Internet, a policy goal of many lawmakers. Asked if they would support another temporary tax ban, the three Republicans rejected that option. "If it's the right thing to do, we ought to make it permanent," said Senator Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican.
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The end of an excise tax means offers of a refund.
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Following a similar move by Verizon Wireless in January of last year, AT&T said Wednesday that it will change its policies to reduce early termination fees and change their contracts without penalty.
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Aiming to encourage its customers to keep their landlines, Verizon is offering package deals including up to four services from the company. For the first time, wireless service would join the bundle deals of television, Internet and landline phone service.
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Verizon Wireless introduced an unlimited calling plan with no roaming or long-distance fees for $99.99 a month, an offer that could spark a price war among carriers.
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Unlike AT&T, Verizon wonât monitor its network to block unauthorized copying. That would violate customer privacy, it says, and would be expensive too.
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A decade-old telephone tax intended to help bring affordable service to rural areas has instead turned into something quite different: a bottomless and politically protected well of cash for cell phone companies that do big business in rural America.
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(InfoWorld) - Verizon Business, a unit of U.S. communications service provider Verizon Communications, has applied for a license to provide international long-distance services in India. The move reflects Verizon's recognition of the growth potential of Asian markets, Verizon Business said Wednesday. Leading multinational telecommunications services companies have applied for licenses to operate national and long-distance telecommunications services in India, to take advantage of a new policy that liberalized direct foreign investment in telecommunications services companies. Before the new policy, some multinational telecommunications services companies including Verizon were offering services in India through cooperation agreements with local licensed service providers. New government rules, announced in 2005, allow companies with foreign ownership of up to 74 percent to offer telecommunications services in the country. Before this rule, foreign investment was limited to 49 percent, which deterred foreign carriers from setting up operations in India. AT&T's majority-owned Indian joint venture, AT&T Global Network Services India was awarded licenses last year by the Indian government to operate national and international long distance telecommunications services from the country. AT&T holds 74 percent of the equity in the joint venture. BT Telecom India, an Indian joint venture of BT Group, applied to the Indian government in November for licenses to provide national and international long-distance services. The government awarded it letters of intent in December, as a first step to the award of licenses. As part of its expansion in India, BT announced Tuesday that it has signed an agreement for the acquisition of i2i Enterprise, a Mumbai-based enterprise services company specializing in IP (Internet Protocol) communications services for Indian and multinational companies. The acquisition would be through its Indian joint venture, BT said. I2i already has licenses to provide international and national long-distance services, Internet services, and Internet telephony services. Verizon is planning to offer its telecommunications services to multinational companies that are expanding in India, as well as Indian companies expanding abroad. It has set up a joint venture, Verizon Communications India, with India's Leo Communications, a part of the Videocon Group of Mumbai. Verizon will hold a 74 percent stake in the joint venture, while Leo will hold the balance 26 percent. Verizon Business is one of three operating units of Verizon Communications, and delivers IP, data, voice and wireless services to large business and government. In India, Verizon Business plans to offer a full range of services to multinational customers, including MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching), international private leased circuits and IP VPNs (virtual private networks).