Raves, Rants & Roses

REPLY: In response to Sharon Tipton's comments regarding AT&T's automatically enrolling someone in the Lifelong Program.

You, reader, pay for the Lifeline Program through the Universal Service Fund (USF) fees billed on your phone statement each month. The government assesses the phone company on the basis of its revenue, but the company "chooses" to bill you, its customer. The fee has been collected for years. The estimate of money received by the federal USF in 2007 alone was $6.95 billion.

Apparently, phone companies received $4.3 billion to provide service in rural and high-cost areas for one year. Phone companies received $822 million in 2007 for a Link-Up Program and the Lifeline Program Mrs. Tipton described. This information is provided by the Universal Service Administrative Service.

As you have observed, you pay many taxes and surcharges. You pay into the Texas Infrastructure Fund (TIF), which garners $211 million annually. However, the state legislature stopped the TIF's giving grants in 2003. The billing continues, the tax continues, but the money goes into that black hole called the state's general fund. That's five years at $211 million a year that's collected, but not correctly identified. Define fraud.

Try to find out who receives and disperses the billions taken in through phone bill charges. Would you guess that AT&T, the Comptroller's Office, and the Public Utilities Commission would be excellent, accessible, consumer-friendly sources of information? Well, guess again.

Rita Turner
Tyler