Understanding taxes and surcharges

These fees are often mandated at the state, local and federal levels and appear in the taxes and other charges section of your bill.

Texas residents only

Please see an important update to the Texas Universal Service Fund.
LEARN MORE

Taxes and surcharges

Access Recovery Charge (ARC)

A monthly fee authorized by the FCC that allows local telephone companies to offset a portion of the costs tied to providing access to their local networks to help keep the cost of local service affordable.

Additional state taxes

State-specific taxes that vary by state.

City tax

Taxes collected for City Governments to cover telecommunications equipment, installation, maintenance and more.

Emergency service fee for 911

State-law mandated fee covering the cost of 911 emergency response services. Frontier collects and pays to 911 jurisdictions.

Federal carrier cost recovery charge

Costs associated with various federal regulatory fees and programs.

Federal excise tax

Local telephone service and facilities tax that Frontier collects and pays directly to the IRS.

Federal Pre-Subscribed Inter-Exchange Carrier Charge (PICC)

A fee paid by long-distance companies to local phone companies for each business line pre-subscribed to the long-distance service. It helps cover a portion of the costs in connecting your telephone line to the long-distance carrier. PICC is assessed per access line and may be passed on to customers by long-distance companies, replacing a higher per-minute charge with a flat-rate per-line fee, plus a lower charge per minute.

Federal subscriber line charge

A regulated monthly charge established by the FCC to help local telephone companies offset a portion of the costs associated with the installation and maintenance of the telephone wire, poles, and other facilities that link your home to our network. While other local providers may refer to it by different names, most, if not all, charge this fee to cover network maintenance.

Federal Universal Service Fund (USF) charge

FCC-regulated charge that subsidizes local service to high-cost areas and low-income customers. Monthly, per-line surcharge helps keep local telephone rates affordable.

Gross revenue surcharge

Funds Public Utility Commissions and other state services. Represents each consumer's portion of that tax on revenue.

Internet infrastructure surcharge

Supports maintenance and other costs associated with our network infrastructure and your continued access to high speed Internet service.

Intrastate access charge

State-assessed charge partially reimburses telephone service providers for costs associated with routing their customers' long distance calls.

Road work recovery surcharge

A charge assessed by Frontier that covers a portion of the cost that is spent when government agencies require our network facilities to be relocated. For example, when new roads are established, or highways are widened we’re expected to move our facilities to meet the governmental project’s needs.

Sales tax

Local, state or other sales tax may be applied to your telecommunications charges, as it is for many other types of purchases.

Service provider number portability

Helps recover costs associated with development, implementation and operability of service.

Sports fee

Helps cover the cost Frontier pays to sports networks to deliver professional and collegiate sports programming in each local team’s territory.

Telecommunication relay service, hearing impaired, telecommunications device for deaf

Provides special-needs equipment, facilities and services for the deaf. This includes special phones, hearing devices, Braille pads, network switching equipment and specialized service center customers.

Video

A combination of FCC regulatory charges, broadcast TV surcharges, and local franchise fees may be applied to your video or TV services.

VoIP administrative fee

Frontier imposes an administrative fee to recover some of the government and other fees that we incur for VoIP service.

Didn't find what you need?