CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) DSL subscribers are going to find a new $1 "Internet Cost Recovery Fee" fee on their bill beginning this month, according to Broadband DSL Reports.
Users in DSL Reports' CenturyLink forum said they just got word of the new fee this month. It comes after the telco announced last December that it would raise DSL rates by 10 percent beginning this January.
CenturyLink justified the fee as necessary to support the capital it takes to support service expansion and customer support.
"Internet cost recovery is a new monthly recurring charge which is applied to all consumer and business HSI lines in service," CenturyLink said about the new fee. "It helps cover the costs associated with building and maintaining the internet network."
Not surprisingly, forum users expressed frustration over the new fee being tacked onto their monthly bill.
One user said that "raising prices in itself doesn't bother me; what bothers me is when companies try to sneak in additional costs by calling it a fee so they don't have to increase the base price."
For more:
- Broadband DSL Reports has this post
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