Jim;

You can thank your Federal government for most of those charges. The Deregulation of the telephone industry caused all this. Another example of government interference in a private industry, and who pays in the end, WE DO. Of course I won't lay all the blame on the govt, other private industry pushed the govt. into allowing deregulation, and after everyone that wanted a piece of the pie got one, the end result is the industry we now have. Funny how the original phone Companies that built the network from the ground up, are now still regulated by the p.s.c., but all the newcomers aren't regulated and can charge whatever they want for their services. Not trying to defend anyone, and I know the technology we enjoy today, would have been slow coming had their not been deregulation. This is all kinda hard to understand unless you follow this industry closely. But in a nutshell, we still have the very best communication network on the planet, Bar None. If anyone has ever traveled to other countries and tried to use a phone, you know what I mean.
But in my opinion, it' not the bargain it used to be 25yrs ago.

(can you tell i spent 31 yrs with the phone co.)?