Pay For Not Using Your Phone

[jeffrey]

Verizon last month introduced the $2 fee. It is charged to customers who could dial out for long distance, but don't subscribe to a long-distance service and don't make long-distance calls

Phone companies levy new fee for not making calls : AP Business News : Abilene Reporter-News

[poundwise]

Just one more reason to dump traditional land-line service.

[tinapbeana]

hehehe.... it's called a minimum usage fee, and has actually been the norm since about '02 or so... typically only applies to 'plans' that don't have an actual monthly fee, just a per minute rate.

in reality, it's no different than paying a $2 monthly plan fee that comes with, say 40 minutes of service bundled in at 5c per minute. you'll pay the $2 whether you use the service or not, but anything over 40 min would just be charged at the 5c/min rate...

[poundwise]

hehehe.... it's called a minimum usage fee, and has actually been the norm since about '02 or so...

Though I understand what you are saying, this article must not be referring to the same thing you are.

"Verizon last month introduced the $2 fee."

This fee was "introduced" in April 2007.

Also, the article points out that other providers like AT&T and Embarq do not charge this particular fee.

Its just a junk charge from Verizon designed to increase revenue by "encouraging" people to adopt a long-distance service plan even if they don't want one.

A side note: This is why, for people with traditional land-line service, I recommend BigRedWire for long-distance. Their plan includes a very low rate and there is no monthly fee, even if you make no calls. So, in other words, if you make no calls, there is no charge at all for that month. I got my parents to use BigRedWire for their long-distance about two years ago and they love it. It has saved them lots of money v. the basic long-distance package offered by their local carrier.