This article describes usage charges, fees, and surcharges besides monthly recurring charges for UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT voice services. The following topics are covered in this article:

• Local Numbers
• Toll-Free Numbers
• Payphone service charge
• International usage 
• Regulatory Compliance Fee
• Emergency Services Surcharge
• Administrative Surcharge
• Interexchange Carrier Charge

Local Numbers

Toll-Free Numbers

Toll-free calls are charged a 30-second minimum with 6-second increments thereafter. 8XX Numbers are charged on inbound calls only, except that fax forwarding and international calls are charged separately when available.

Toll-Free Rates for Calls Coming from outside the Continental United States (Lower 48)
Calls originating from Canada, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands or other nearby island groups (except for domestic Canadian or Puerto Rican calls) will have special, higher, per-minute rates that will vary by each of these regions. For more information on these rates, click here or contact a customer representative for additional pricing information.

Payphone Surcharge

Calls identified as Payphone refers to calls originating from a payphone. In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress required service providers to track and compensate payphone companies for calls originating from pay telephones to toll-free numbers. To comply with this, UNIVERGE BLUE® assesses a per-call service charge for all calls made from a payphone to a toll-free UNIVERGE BLUE® number. The charge is in addition to normal usage charges and currently is 65¢ per call. This rate may change without notice to comply with regulatory changes.

International Usage

Outbound international calling is available upon request; the customer must maintain a good credit history with UNIVERGE BLUE®. Availability of international calling and list of countries that may be called will vary by service plan; UNIVERGE BLUE® reserves the right to discontinue international services including on a country-by-country basis and to revise rates without notice. All international rates are subject to a 1-minute minimum with 1-minute increments thereafter.

Click here  for full list page of International Rates for UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT

If you would like international calling enabled so you can make international calls from your UNIVERGE BLUE® account, contact Support.

Regulatory Compliance Fee

Industry and regulatory changes and increased requirements are forcing UNIVERGE BLUE® to hire additional staff, buy large amounts of additional network equipment, and spend significant development efforts to comply. Examples include required support for CALEA (the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement), privacy and PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance, and SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act) compliance. UNIVERGE BLUE® passes on to customers a small percentage of these costs. While UNIVERGE BLUE®'s fee is a fraction of what other carriers charge, we prefer to let you know that this is in direct response to increased costs required of us by the industry and government compliance, rather than hide that fact in a general service price increase.

Emergency Services Surcharge

Provincial, County, State, and Federal (FCC and CRTC) agencies have been implementing new processes and procedures to assure that all communications carriers are able to support them with specialized communications in emergency situations, whether customers make use of them or not. These programs have expanded significantly in recent years, and participation by all communications carriers is required. In the past UNIVERGE BLUE® has largely subsidized the cost of providing E911 service, passing on only a portion of the E911 cost to the customer. With the current surcharge, UNIVERGE BLUE® continues to subsidize the overall cost of E911 service by up to 45%.

Administrative Surcharge

This Administrative Surcharge is a fee that is intended to partially offset the costs incurred by UNIVERGE BLUE® in connection with regulation and taxation management. As regulatory and tax compliance become increasingly complex, the costs incurred by UNIVERGE BLUE® in delivering services in a manner that complies with all applicable regulations and tax requirements also increase, including tax engine licensing costs, personnel and advisory expenses, and other associated costs. The Administrative Surcharge is not a government-mandated fee.

Interexchange Carrier Charge

All telephone calls move across multiple carrier networks from their point of origin to their point of completion. Every carrier charge UNIVERGE BLUE® for the right both to connect to and transit their network. Unfortunately, many of these carriers raise both these fees on a periodic basis. In addition, in November 2011 there was the Carrier Access Reform for Inter-state VoIP traffic. This reform increased the cost of connection fees (access fees) paid to the various RBOCs, CLECs and ILECs for VoIP inter-state minutes. These costs were passed on to us by our vendors beginning in December 2011. We have done what we could to reduce the effect of these additional charges but now find it necessary to pass part of this increased cost to our customers.