Parties have until Sept. 21 to comment on plans to...
Parties have until Sept. 21 to comment on plans to increase Idaho’s universal service surcharge, the Utilities Commission said Thursday. The rise, from 10 to 12 cents per month per residential line and from 17 to 19 cents per business…
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line, was ordered by the commission under a 1988 state law. Under the proposal, the surcharge for in-state toll calls also would rise -- from $0.003 per minute to $0.0035 per minute. Through June 30 the surcharge amassed $1.73 million, against payments from USF totaling $1.82 million to eight companies -- Albion Telephone, Cambridge Telephone, Direct Comm of Rockland, Inland Telephone, Fremont Telecom, Midvale Telephone Exchange, Rural Telephone and Silver Star Telephone, said the commission. Disbursements were $1.94 million in 2009. Cellphones’ popularity is resulting in customers taking out residential and business landlines, the commission said. As of May 1, carriers counted 328,592 residential lines in the state, down nearly 11 percent from a year before. Business lines fell 2 percent to 219,752. Long-distance billed minutes shrank 6 percent.