Even the FCC has its limits

It's one thing for the telcos to lobby their way out of having to contribute a portion of their DSL proceeds to the federal Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes Internet access to schools, libraries, low-income households, and rural areas. Because who needs that, right? The FCC is totally cool with letting them out of that. But even the FCC wants to know how, exactly, Verizon and BellSouth will justify continuing to charge the exact same amount as the now-defunct USF fee and pocketing the cash. I'd like to know that, too. So far, . The company said it will immediately stop charging you the bogus fee, now that someone noticed it's been charging you the bogus fee. Verizon, so far, appears to be sticking to its guns. Although, to be fair, Verizon was at least smart enough to change the amount of the fee by just a few cents to make things look slightly less obvious. Will it fool the feds? We'll be watching.