I recall paying this fee about 2 years ago with Sprint. I signed up for a big sign-up bonus and had to pay something like $10 of my first bill for the miles.

Of course, the sign-up bonus was something like 5000 miles which I actually needed for an award, so the ten bucks itself wasn't so bothersome. If Sprint came out and said "We will sell you 5000 WorldPerks miles for $10 (or $25, for that matter)", I would say "Sign me up!" But like any good phone company should do, they felt the need to use vague terms and jam me up on the back end. Sometimes I think phone companies enjoy dishonesty just for the sake of being sneaky.

I haven't ventured back into the miles-for-phone service since. It's simpler to negotiate the lowest wireless rate you can get (negotiate a percent-off, not miles) and use a bare-bones CLEC if you absolutely feel the need for a landline handset in your house for 911 purposes.