For most business owners, just looking at your phone bill can cause panic or dread. Instead of checking line by line for accuracy in the invoice, you probably look at the total, sigh, and write a check. With all the new services available, you need to understand your invoice so you don’t get overcharged or billed for something you’re not getting.
The FCC requires telephone companies to provide you with clear, plain language in their invoices when they describe their services. However, even then, you may not understand what you are being charged for.
Here is a list of terminology associated with your business telephone bill, your wireless bills, or both.
Access Charge: fees charged by a local phone company for the use of its local network.
Airtime Charges: These are per-minute charges for the time you spend talking on your wireless telephone. Some wireless providers will round fractions of minutes to the next highest one, two, or three minutes.
Billing Increments: A call duration measurement unit expressed in seconds or minutes. Depending on your service provider, some services are measured and billed in sixty-second increments and some may be in durations of six or even ten seconds. For example, if you have one minute billing increments, any call less than 1 minute will be billed as 1 minute.
BTN (Billing Telephone Number): Your main billing telephone number.
Cramming: When a charge is placed on your phone bill that you didn’t order or authorize.
Detailed Billing: This service provides detailed information such as date, time, duration, type of call (incoming or outgoing), number called, or calling party, for each call.
Direct Dialing: When a customer is pre-subscribed with a long distance company and makes a call using 1 the area code (or country code) and the telephone number, without operator assistance or using a dial-around number.
Directory Assistance: Charges for dialing 411 or (area code) 555-1212 for directory assistance calls.
Domestic Call: Any call that originates and terminates within the United States.
Downloading Fees: Fees charged for downloading options offered by your wireless service provider, such as ring tones. If your plan includes Internet access, these are fees for downloading data from the Internet.
E911 Charges: These are Enhanced 911 or E911 service. This lets your wireless telephone automatically transmit your geographic position to emergency responders when you dial 911. Your provider is charged for this and may choose to pass their costs on to you.
Features Charges: Both wireline and wireless telephone companies offer features such as call forwarding, call waiting, voice mail, three-way calling, and caller identification. These services may show up as separate charges on your bill.
FCC (Federal Communications Commission): The United States government agency that regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. Established by the Communications Act of 1934, the FCC’s jurisdiction includes all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.
Federal Excise Tax: A three percent tax applied only to local service that is billed separately from long distance service. In 2006, the IRS stopped enforcing the toll portion of the tax. The tax still applies to customers who only subscribe to local phone service. Earlier this year H.R 3011 was introduced (Telephone Excise Tax Repeal Act of 2009) to repeal the federal excise tax on communications services.
Interstate Calls: Calls that start in one state and end in another state.
Intrastate Calls: Calls that start and end within the same state.
LDU: Long Distance Usage is the amount of long distance a customer uses.
Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) Billing: When a customer receives their invoice directly from their Local Exchange Carrier (your local phone company).
Local Number Portability (LNP): This allows customers to retain their existing local telephone numbers when switching from one telephone service provider to another. Companies may pass on to customers the fees they are charged. These are fees and not taxes.
Minimum Minute Charge: Some calling plans will have a minimum number of minutes that they bill for a call length. A 10-minute minimum charge would mean that even if you talk less than 10 minutes on a call, you would still be billed for a 10-minute call.
Minimum Monthly Charge: Some long distance calling plans have a minimum monthly charge. This means that if your plan has a $50 monthly minimum, your monthly bill will always be at least $50 even if you have a month where you have only made $25 in calls.
Minimum Usage Charge: A calling plan where you would pay a small fee if your monthly long distance usage is under a certain amount. This is different from a minimum monthly fee.
Monthly Calling Plan Charge: Charges applicable to any monthly calling plan. For example, unlimited long distance calling on your wireline bill or unlimited minutes on your wireless bill.
Operator Assisted Calls: These are charges for any calls that are connected by an operator. Usually, it is more expensive to have an operator help you with a call.
Roaming Charges: Roaming charges require you to pay for using your wireless telephone outside of the “home” service area as defined by your service provider in your service plan or contract. Usually the charges are higher when roaming. In addition to roaming charges, there might be a daily access fee.
SIM card (Subscriber Identity Module): Also known as a “smart card,” this is the physical card in a mobile telephone that contains all necessary information for uniquely identifying a subscriber.
Single Bill Fee: This is a fee that the carrier can charge for combining your local and long distance charges onto one bill. This fee is not an FCC charge and some companies waive it.
SLA (Service Level Agreement): Documentation or a contract that details service quality commitments between a carrier and the subscriber.
Slamming: The unauthorized conversion of a customer’s long distance phone service from their current carrier to a new long distance carrier. Slamming is illegal.
State and Local Taxes: Taxes that are imposed by state, local, and municipal governments.
Toll Call: Any call, subject to charge, to a destination outside of the local service area of the calling station.
Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS): This is a charge that pays for the relay center to transmit and translate calls for people with hearing or speech disabilities.
Text Messaging: This service allows sending of short messages, usually less than one hundred characters in length. This will either be a flat monthly fee or a per-message fee.
Universal Service Fund (USF): This is a charge on some long distance services to offset a carrier’s mandatory payment into the Federal Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes rural, low income, and health and education telecommunications customers. The FCC sets the USF rate every three months. It applies only to state-to-state and international phone calls. The FCC doesn’t require this charge to be passed on to customers, and each carrier decides if and how to recover its Universal Service costs. If this line item appears on your bill, it means the carrier has chosen to pass their charges onto you.
You should check your phone bill every month and make an effort to understand the meaning of each item to make sure that you’re paying the proper rates for your contract. If you make any changes to your lines, make sure they apply the right charges to the change. If you see something that you don’t understand, ask your provider to explain the charge. If you have a Telecom Expense Management company working for you, they can explain the charges as well as make sure you’re not billed for something you’re not using.
Article also published here.
…
Nermine Shaker is a Partner at THE SYGNAL GROUP, a telecom consulting firm that offers telecom expense management, telecom auditing and VoIP management to businesses of all sizes. Find out how to lower your telecom expenses at http://www.SygnalGroup.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.TelecomExpertise.com/
Read more articles written by Nermine Shaker
Related posts:
- Telecom Expense Management – Spotting Telecom Billing Errors
Whether a business has only ten employees making a few long distance calls a day, or is a burgeoning enterprise with hundreds of employees conducting thousands of calls and data transfers every hour, it is important for that business to carefully manage their telecommunication costs. Telecom Expense Management, or TEM,... - Tame Your Telecom Spending
Telecom spending can be a very large part of a company’s operating costs. Companies are always looking to keep their costs under control and telecom spending is one of the more difficult areas to manage. Even with the increase in value and flexibility from new technology, companies have also seen... - How To Perfect Your Telecom Audit Process
Telecom audit is an important process for any organization. Human error, failure to pay close attention to details, constraint of time in checking long telecom bills, and insufficient knowledge of new technology and regulations – these mistakes can take a toll on the revenue of a company. Avoiding all these... - Slash your electric bill in 6 easy steps
Spending lots to save pennies makes very little sense, but if you’re already in the market for a new appliance, consider the Web as your first line of defense in energy-savings. Perhaps you weren’t so Eco-conscious until that glaring electric bill landed in your mailbox. It’s time to become mindful... - Telecom Disaster Planning – What You Need to Know to Get Started
What if your company couldn’t use its computers for a day? How about your phones? Any phone system outage, even if it’s a short one, could result in financial losses and inconvenience for your business. Can you afford this disruption? Most businesses can’t. Planning for any type of interruption in... - Why Your Business Needs A Telecom Audit
There is a very clear reason that so many new technologies appear every year – new technologies help keep businesses competitive and successful. As computers grow ever more capable and inexpensive, businesses continue to take advantage of them. This causes the tech industry to continually come up with new models,... - An Overview of Telecom Expense Management (TEM)
What is TEM? Telecom Expense Management (TEM) is a term used to define an approach to managing all telecommunication service expenses such as voice, data and wireless with a combination of software tools and manual auditing. In managing all these services and related processes, its goal is to minimize costs... - Negotiation – Basic Techniques for Telecom Expense Management
Everyone has to negotiate at one stage or another. These negotiations could be in the form of promotions, sales calls, hiring, and more. For companies, negotiations are in the form of contracts, business deals and cost management. The rule of thumb for most negotiations remains the same although the situation,... - Understanding the State-Mandated Minimum Auto Liability Insurance
It has been estimated that as many as 15% of all drivers on the road in the United States do not have liability insurance for their vehicle. Of course, that estimation does not take into account drivers in New Hampshire and Wisconsin, who in previous years were not required by... - 5 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Telecom Consulting Firm
With all the different aspects involved in telecommunications for today’s businesses, hiring a telecom consultant firm is a necessity. With the advent of computers and high-speed Internet, there are many choices for a company’s telecom needs. It is important not only to keep up to date on the latest telecom... - Understanding The Challenges Of The Link Building Game
Many webmasters who have been following the discussions about Google’s dislike of paid links have been confused about what constitutes bad links and good links, in the eyes of the search engine companies. In this article, I will seek to answer many of the questions people have on this topic.... - Project Management Basics for Telecom
Telecom projects, like any other project, need special attention if you want the project to be successful and done on a schedule. One way to proceed on a telecom project is to hire a telecom management professional to oversee the project. Another way is to use a project management software... - Understanding The Due On Sale Clause On Your Home Mortgage
The “Due On Sale Clause” is among the most frequently misunderstood and most-feared legal terms in American contractual law. In this article, we are going to take a look at what it is, what it is not, and how to avoid violating it. What Is The Due On Sale Clause?... - Understanding Uninsured Motorist And Underinsured Motorist Insurance Coverage
Uninsured Motorist (UM) and Underinsured Motorist Insurance (UIM) are often the most under-appreciated and misunderstood forms of insurance available to consumers. I recall as a child, an uncle who had worked for an insurance agency declared to my parents that Uninsured Motorist (UM) and Underinsured Motorist (UIM) insurance coverage were... - Understanding Gambling Addiction
There’s nothing wrong with gambling, if you use it the right way – as means of having fun, as a hobby or a way of de stressing. The danger comes when the roles get reversed and gambling starts using you. When you start to gamble not to relax, but because...