Comments to the FCC on Price Cap Performance Review for Local Exchange Carriers

In January of 1996, just before the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed,
residential consumers paid a Federal charge (called the Subscriber Line Charge) of $3.50 per line. Its purpose is to help recover the fixed costs of the telephone network that are used by long distance companies (Interexchange Carriers or IXCs) to provide service. By January 2000, the recovery of costs had been radically changed by a combination of Federal Communications Commission policy and industry pricing practices