Travel Technology - US Voip providers - tax questions

I'm getting sick and tired of Vonage adding new taxes to my bill. When I signed up I had a flat subscription rate with no taxes, but now I'm getting close to $10/month in stupid fees.

If you have a moment, and you subscribe to one of the major voip providers (except for Sunrocket) could you check your bill and see how much you are paying monthly in taxes above the subscription fee?

Sorry..the second one I've used is Sunrocket. Vonage was getting expensive and unreliable. :td:

As long as your billing address is outside of the US, it's $0.00 in taxes and fees using the Delta3 "http://www.iconnecthere.com" service.^ ^

I have been using ICH with different ISP's over both wireline and wireless networks with no issues, other than the crappy call detail record info.

I'm getting sick and tired of Vonage adding new taxes to my bill. When I signed up I had a flat subscription rate with no taxes, but now I'm getting close to $10/month in stupid fees.


I'm not sure why you're getting $10/month added unless some of those are state taxes. I live in Washington State, and my Vonage bill is $28.43 per month total, broken out like this:

24.99 Premium unlimited plan
0.99 Regulatory recovery fee
0.99 Emergency 911 cost recovery fee
1.46 Federal Universal Service Fee
____
28.43 Total (January 26, 2007)

Regulatory Recovery Fee $1.98
Emergency 911 Cost Recovery $0.99
State Communications Service Tax $2.35
Federal Universal Service Fee $1.81
County 911 Fee $1.25
State Telecom Infrastructure Maintenance Fee $1.17

Total: $9.55

I'm not even on the unlimited plan, I use the $14.95 local plan.

Regulatory Recovery Fee $1.98
Emergency 911 Cost Recovery $0.99
State Communications Service Tax $2.35
Federal Universal Service Fee $1.81
County 911 Fee $1.25
State Telecom Infrastructure Maintenance Fee $1.17

Total: $9.55

I'm not even on the unlimited plan, I use the $14.95 local plan.

Ridiculous. Taxes and fees of 64% of your monthly base or 39% of your total bill. How much of this was legislated and how much is greed? I know the landline companies were trying to force the VOIP guys into universal service feeds, but I had not heard about the rest.

I suppose much depends on in which state you receive your bill.

fuzz

Ridiculous. Taxes and fees of 64% of your monthly base or 39% of your total bill. How much of this was legislated and how much is greed? I know the landline companies were trying to force the VOIP guys into universal service feeds, but I had not heard about the rest.

I suppose much depends on in which state you receive your bill.

fuzz

I've been with them for three years, the first year was pretty much tax free, then they kept adding new ones every couple of months.

Our Vonage bill was only $17.48 the first few months we had the $15/mo plan. But in recent months it's crept up to where it's now $20.45, broken down as:

$14.99 Residential Basic 500
$0.99 Regulatory Recovery fee
$0.99 Emergency 911 Recovery fee
$1.44 Sales tax
$0.90 Fed USF
$0.45 State Excise Tax
$0.42 Local Franchise Tax
$0.11 County MCTD Surcharge
$0.07 State Franchise Surcharge
$0.07 Local Transit Tax
$0.02 County MCTD Surcharge

Our billing address is in Manhattan.

We're also thinking of switching, especially because those $.99 "recovery fees" aren't actually imposed by any regulator, but are just fees Vonage keeps for itself. So our $15/mo plan is really $17/mo + tax.

Sunrocket's unlimited $199/year plan is actually cheaper than Vonage's 500 minute plan.

I'm hestiant to try Sunrocket again, I tried to move my number to them and just kept running into problems. But at the moment anything sounds better than Vonage.

There was some business news today where the feds were definitely going to add fed taxes to phone services such as Vonage, but not such services as Skype. I dont remember the details nor the source. Maybe someone can locate a link.

There was some business news today where the feds were definitely going to add fed taxes to phone services such as Vonage, but not such services as Skype. I dont remember the details nor the source. Maybe someone can locate a link.

You're probably talking about the DC Circuit Court's hearing on Friday regarding the FCC's attempts to extract higher USF fees from Vonage and friends. No decision has been made yet.

See CNet's coverage (http://news.com.com/Federal+appeals+court+weighs+Internet+phone+taxes/2100-1028_3-6158048.html) (free) and WSJ's coverage (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117104398542303869.html) (subscription required).

Regulatory Recovery Fee $1.98
...

What's this? Regulations like minimum wage, not stealing money, not killing people?

So this is their fee for not breaking the law? You'd think that wouldn't cost extra.

Scott, I, too, am sick of the fees, federal and otherwise, that are piled onto my Vonage bill. Many of us are paying these same fees three times over, as most have a landline (911 & home alarm) & cell numbers, each including the same fees.

Until recently, I had two Vonage accts for my home and business residence in another city. I've elected to drop one of the accts in favor of a SkypeIn/Out acct., which, because the service isn't sold as a landline replacement, includes none of the fees we get with Vonage. The total monthly cost is $5 vs. $29.73 for Vonage (I bought the SkypeOut unlimited when it was $15 for the year; it's now $30).

I've been using a PC-free Skype phone (Netgear SPH200D) for the last month; the service is generally good for POTS interaction, and the modest dropoff in call audio quality is more than offset by the savings. I'm now considering dropping my other Vonage acct. in favor of this arrangement.

Are others considering dropping Vonage and other mainline VOIP providers for less-costly alternatives that aren't selling themselves as landline replacements?

Mine is 63 cents per month - Universal Service Fund Charge. Base plan is Sunrocket $9.95/month. Total bill $10.58.

I don't understand the business case for using Vonage. Is it available in places that Sunrocket isn't? I transferred my old number - the one that I had with Ma Bell years ago and then with a traditional CLEC until '05 - to Sunrocket with no problems.

I don't understand the business case for using Vonage. Is it available in places that Sunrocket isn't?

Neither Vonage nor Sunrocket requires you to be in any particular place. As long as you have a fast, neutral internet connection, you should be able to use it. Some services like 911 might be tied to certain locations, but the basic phone service is geographically agnostic.

We first got Vonage when mrs. themicah was living in Israel in 2004 before we'd ever heard of any other reliable VOIP provider. She was able to get a NYC number and plug the box into her apartment in Jerusalem and we had unlimited calling back and forth--a great deal. At the time the unlimited plan was $29.99 + $1.50 Regulatory Recovery Charge + $0.75 FET tax. Since then, the regulatory agencies have slowly muscled their way in and Vonage has tacked on a couple additional "recovery fees" of its own.

It's also possible that your billing address is in a jurisdiction that doesn't levy as many taxes on phone bills. My mobile phone bill has just as many absurd charges as my Vonage bill, thanks to living in NYC.

I signed up with Sunrocket for their 2-for-1 annual program, which netted to about $8/month for everything. I was billed a separate USF charge, but that was it - no other monthly fees or taxes.

I had a serious problem with their number portability group - after visiting sunrocketforums.com, I found the contact info for that team's director. I emailed her with an explanation of my problem and she called me directly in under 5 minutes. Within 3 hours, the issue was resolved, once and for all.

The service is fine, as long as my cable modem stays up. Although I'm keeping a basic access line for emergencies with Southern Bell (cable modems don't work after hurricanes), my monthly cost dropped by $50 for the same exact features.

Neither Vonage nor Sunrocket requires you to be in any particular place. As long as you have a fast, neutral internet connection, you should be able to use it. Some services like 911 might be tied to certain locations, but the basic phone service is geographically agnostic.

That's good to know. I recall when VoIP first emerged on the scene, companies didn't have available numbers in all areas and it wasn't clear whether local number portability would work with these providers. For example, when I first heard about Vonage, I could certainly sign up for it from anywhere in the world, but I would have had to select a different NPANXX. I guess now this is probably no longer an issue...in which case I still don't understand why people would pay $25/month + tax for Vonage. Is it because of their commercials? (That said, I struggle with why I pay $10/month for Sunrocket, so maybe I'm the wrong guy to ask.)

I get my voip from optimum online (nj area). Granted its a bit more expensive i guess (29.99) but no tax is showing.

Well, I guess that may be inaccurate. For the total bill (tv, internet, phone) the taxes are $0.80 municipal fee. $0.07 FCC use and $0.13 state regulatory....but all that is posted on the cable portion, not phone.

Vonage

Residential Basic 500 $14.99
Regulatory Recovery Fee $1.98
Emergency 911 Cost Recovery $1.98
Federal Universal Service Fee $1.90

Billing address is in Los Angeles