Until August, Rick Jones hardly glanced at the
That’s when the Brooklyn Park resident discovered his ZIP code — 21225 — meant Sprint PCS thought he was living in Baltimore and was tacking on the city’s phone tax of $3.50.
The wireless carrier credited his account on the next bill, but before long, Mr. Jones, an electrician, had switched to Verizon. But he’s not any happier.
«There are all kinds of fees,» he said. «It seems like they put it in there to confuse everybody.» He’s one of many county cell phone users who say their monthly bill, with its lists of mysterious charges, federal regulatory fees and sales taxes is too hard to decipher. Maryland Assistant Attorney General Scott Bailey said that in the past year, the state’s Attorney General’s Office has received 463 complaints regarding cell phones. Most were regarding billing disputes. In July, 35 states including Maryland reached a settlement agreement with Cingular, Verizon and Sprint that requires the companies to list all fees, not just the base price. «There are very many fees that we’re talking about,» Mr. Bailey said. «There’s a cancellation fee, there’s an activation fee, there are fees that are assessed by the government and by the carriers themselves — that they call ’cost recovery’ because of government mandates.» The latest one, the «number portability fee,» is designed to allow customers to keep their phone number when switching carriers, and to keep companies from running out of numbers. Sprint and Verizon charge 40 cents to recoup their costs, while Cingular groups the cost of number portability under the Then there’s the «federal excise tax,» which Congress mandated to pay for the With 170 million cell phone customers nationwide, one can assume the government has recouped the cost of the 1898 endeavor. Since 1992, revenues from this tax on talking goes right to the Internal Revenue Service. And more charges Or take the Universal Connectivity Fee. Congress mandates that all But how much the company chooses to pass on to the customer varies. «It’s up to the carrier what charges it accesses to customers,» Verizon spokesman John Johnson said. «Part of that is that it’s a function of the cost and what the carrier incurs — how efficient can the carrier be for local number portability, and so on.» Another listing on bills are the county, state and federal 911 charges — they each have their own- which is helping to pay for new systems to pinpoint the location of wireless callers. Some states allow the money to go into a general fund not necessarily used for 911 services, said Erin McGee, a Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association spokesman. «Most people don’t understand the additional fees — how a $39.99 plan turns into a bill of $50,» she said. «Like the E911 fee — states and cities and counties are collecting it to pay for upgrades to their 911 centers, but it’s sometimes being diverted to pay for everything and anything.» She said Maryland ranks 34th in the nation in wireless tax percentage, paying an average of 12.55 percent of their bill in taxes. Mr. Johnson said he sees a trend toward increasing state and local cell phone taxes on bills as «disturbing to the wireless industries and should be to customers as well.» When County Executive Janet S. Owens proposed a 5 percent tax on cell phones in January, however, the plan received little support from state legislators who would have had to pass it. Assuming some taxes and fees are standard on each wireless bill, customers should still be aware of lurking charges. Some customers may be surprised to see a general category for «additional usage charges,» which could include roaming minutes or using specific services like dialing 411. Other companies may charge for downloading extras like ringtones. Mark Luckner of Annapolis said he occasionally looks at his bill, which he thinks is supposed to be about $75 a month, but has been as high as $300. «Every once in a while I go over (the bill),» he said. «If I had more time, I think I could get a better deal.» Mr. Lunkner is thinking of switching to a family plan. But people who have those might be even less likely to look for hidden charges. Aschley Cone, a St. John’s College sophomore, said though she’s had a cell phone for six years through Sprint, she has rarely looked at the bill — probably because her parents pick up the tab. «Definitely, if it was coming out of my bank account I would pay more attention,» she said.
«federal regulatory cost recovery fee,» which is $1.05.