LUS Fiber may adjust its rates and charges, or impose additional rates and charges against customer’s invoices in order to recover amounts that it, either directly or indirectly, pays to or is required by governmental or quasi-governmental authorities to collect from others to support statutory or regulatory programs. Examples of such programs include, but are not limited to, the Federal and State Universal Service Fund, E911 Emergency Response Fees, Directory Assistance charges, Telephone Relay Service and State and Federal taxes.
The LATA Access Fee is a charge associated with offsetting the cost of expanding the local area wide long distance calling area as part of your local phone service. It is also associated with the cost of upgrading and maintaining the network that provides customers the ability to keep their existing phone numbers when switching local service providers and carrying your in-state long distance and local toll calls over its lines.
The Regulatory Recovery Fee is a charge associated with offsetting cost associated with other state and federal regulatory fees such as the Louisiana Public Service Commission, the Interstate Telephone Relay Service Fund for the visually and hearing impaired, and the annual North American Numbering Plan administrative support fees.
The Louisiana Universal Service Fund (USF) provides support to promote access to telecommunications services at reasonable rates for those living in rural and high-cost areas, income-eligible consumers, rural health care facilities, and schools and libraries.
This tax is used to provide access to all public telecommunications services to persons who are deaf, blind or have other similar disabilities in the state of Louisiana.
The Federal Telephone Excise Tax is imposed under the Internal Revenue Code in the United States under 26
U.S.C. § 4251 on amounts paid for certain "communications services." The tax was originally imposed on the person paying for the communications services (such as a customer of a telephone company) but, under 26
U.S.C. § 4291, it is now collected from the customer by the "person receiving any payment for facilities or services" on which the tax is imposed.
The State Sales and Use Tax is levied and imposed by the state of Louisiana for the purposes of furnishing telecommunications services.
911 has been designated as the "Universal Emergency Number" for all citizens throughout the United States to request emergency assistance. The purpose of the fee is to "pay for" the cost of such systems. Consumers do not pay this fee in order to be provided with E911 service. A consumer has access to E911 whether or not the locality in which the customer lives has imposed the monthly charge line that appears on their phone bill.
There is no per-call charge for calling 911.
The Cable Franchise Fee represents part of the compensation a community receives in exchange for a cable operator's use and occupation of public property (the public rights-of-way). Thus, a franchise fee is in the nature of a rental charge, and is not a tax. A community's right to charge a franchise fee stems from its basic rights over its own property. These rights do not arise from federal law, but predate the Cable Act.
The Broadcast TV Surcharge is a pass through reflecting charges assessed to LUS Fiber by local broadcast or local "network-affiliated" TV stations. While broadcast stations distribute their signals over the air with spectrum granted to them by the federal government for free, they still charge LUS Fiber significant amounts to carry their signals. These high amounts have forced LUS Fiber to pass this cost on to their TV customers.
Federal law (47 U.S.C. § 541(g)(2)(C)) allows local franchising authorities (LFA’s) to require cable operators to pay “capital costs for public, educational, or governmental (PEG) access facilities”. LUS Fiber does not keep the PEG Access Fees for itself. After the fees are collected, they are transmitted to the LFA’s that require LUS Fiber to incur the PEG “capital costs.” LFAs are responsible for ensuring that the PEG Access Fees are spent in compliance with federal law. PEG Access Fees are in addition to the Franchise Fees imposed by most LFA’s.
An administrative charge will be applied to the customer’s bill for each occurrence that a paper check, or an electronic funds transfer item is returned for the reason of insufficient funds or no account.
A fee that is equal to 5% of the outstanding balance on the customer’s bill and is applied to each billing cycle the balance remains outstanding.
An administrative charge will be applied to the customer’s bill for each occurrence that a credit card charge back is the result of a customer-initiated dispute.
A fee applied for the restoration of any service where the interruption of service was the result of payment delinquency. This fee will be applicable to each customer’s account per billing address per service that is being restored and will be reflected on the customer’s bill.
Computing Charges or Credits for a Fractional Part of a Month
When rates are stated on a monthly basis, each month is considered to have 30 days for billing purposes. To determine fractional charges or credits for portions of months:
Computing Fractional Charges or Credits for a Rate Change
When a monthly rate is changed (increased or decreased), the additional charge or credit for any fractional part of a month is calculated as follows:
All rates and charges will be quoted in United States dollars, billed in United States dollars, and are to be paid in United States dollars.
If you are unable to get LUS Fiber to remove charges from your telephone bill that you consider to be incorrect, you can file a complaint as follows with:
You can file a complaint using an FCC online complaint form https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us . You can also file your complaint with the FCC’s Consumer Center by calling: 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) or 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY; or 1-844-432-2275 Videophone; or 1-866-418-0232 Fax; or writing to:
Federal Communications Commission
Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division
45 L Street
Washington, D.C. 20554
What to Include in Your Complaint
The best way to provide all the information needed for the FCC to process your complaint is to complete fully the online complaint form. When you open the online complaint form, you will be asked a series of questions that will take you to the particular section of the form you need to complete. If you do not use the online complaint form, your complaint, at a minimum, should indicate:
For charges for telephone services provided within Louisiana, you should contact the Louisiana Public Service Commission at:
Louisiana Public Service Commission
602 North 5th Street
12th Floor
Baton Rouge, LA 70802 225-342-4404
800-256-2397
What to Include in Your Complaint
For charges on your telephone bill for non-telephone services, file your complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can file a complaint with the FTC online at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov. You can also submit a complaint by calling the FTC toll-free at 1-877-382-4357 (voice) or 1-866-653-4261 (TTY), or writing to:
Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20580
For information about other telecommunications issues, visit the FCC’s Consumer website, or contact the FCC’s Consumer Center using the information provided for filing a complaint.
Revised 2/27/2024
