The Bill Police: Protecting Your Wireless Rights since 2003

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Wireless Billing

Beware Verizon Business Customers: a new “Economic Adjustment Charge” is coming to a device near you

Whats New?

Verizon has just helped itself to some new revenue sponsored by……YOU! They have added a new Administrative charge to help their bottom line and you will be the one paying for it.

How much will it cost?

Starting in June 16th 2022, Verizon will be adding $2.20 per Smartphone and $.98 for Tablets or Data only devices.

What are the details?

Verizon will implement a new “Economic Adjustment Charge” of $2.20 per line/per month for smartphones and/or data lines on plans that have recently been activated or upgraded, completed a “contract-based line term,” or have 12 months or less remaining on a device payment plan. For business accounts, tablets and non-smartphones will cost .98 cents per month. Both changes come into effect on June 16, 2022.

The new surcharges are only applicable to existing lines (lines activated before 5/16/2022) that meet the following conditions;

• If the line existed BEFORE 5/16/2022 AND is currently out of contract: line contract has expired, no current device installment, or line was activated without a contract (BYOD)

• If the line existed BEFORE 5/16/2022 AND has a current device installment agreement, and has 12 months or less remaining on the agreement.

• Lines that existed prior to 5/16/2022 and are currently in contract (or have more than 12 months remaining on their existing installment agreement) will not be charged the surcharge. However, once the line is upgraded – it will start to be billed the monthly surcharge.

• Lines that are activated on 5/16/2022 and moving forward will be subject to the surcharge, regardless of the contract status.

Why is Verizon doing this?

Verizon states, “From time to time, we review and make adjustments to fees to defray some of Verizon’s administrative and telco expenses and costs of complying with regulatory requirements.” Tami Erwin, the Head of Verizon Business stated, “We’re all feeling the pressure and we’ve been in the process of deciding how much of that pressure we can share with our clients.” 

What can i do about it?

Government and Non-Profit accounts have been the only organizations that are exempt. We have assisted customers to see if they are on a State Contract or can be listed as a Non-Profit with an exemption form. This may assist in getting those charges removed.

This is not a negotiable charge. It is just for the privledge of having Verizon as a carrier.

Please let us know if Bill Police can help you transition to an exempt account type. Contact us here.

Because we are ….Still Protecting Your Wireless Rights…….

What is Actionable Intelligence? A Case Study on How to Find It and How to Use It…..

Here at Bill Police, we know you can grab a ton of valuable information from your bill which can help you every single day in your job.    We call it “Actionable Intelligence”

 

Just what is Actionable Intelligence?  It is Meaningful Knowledge You Can Do Something About.

 

Here’s a Case Study of  Valuable Actionable Intelligence you can use:

  • One of our Customers was paying for both a Smartphone and a USB Drive for a group of employees
  • During a review, Bill Police identified these users were using redundant service devices — they didn’t need 2 devices to perform these functions
  • The option was presented to combine the Smartphone and the Wifi Device into the existing Smartphone device and then activate Hotspot on that device like what is shown below:

This made everyone happy by providing several benefits:

  • Users liked having only one device instead of 2 saving them time and making their job more convenient
  • The Customer liked having to only program and manage one device
  • The Customer also liked saving about $30 per employee for that group (about $3000 per month)
  •  Bill Police liked saving the Customer hassle and Saving them money at the same time

Still Protecting Your Wireless Rights………….Yep, … Right Now………Go Get Your Bill; you’ll see or we’ll show you!!

How Much Data are Your Users Using? Heres a Few Quick Tips

What are your users doing when they are eating up gobs of data?

 

We are here to tell you that data consumption — for different types of files — is not created equal.  Below is a helpful table, thanks Verizon, to help show you what you get from your data usage:

So what is that user who is saying they are using their 35 GB for “business use” must mean they are sending about 3 and a half million emails each month —  or looking at about 100,000 web views.

 

Perhaps not a big deal if you dont worry about cost or productivity but the user who is using this 35 GB per month with an overage rate of $10 or $15 per GB, these users can be costing you about $500 a month on average.  

 

To help you gauge what you’re using in a day, here are some additional averages:

100 kb = text only email

500 kb = visiting one webpage

61,440 kb = listening to 60 minutes of music

358,400 kb = watching 60 minutes of video

3,072 kb = downloading/uploading one hi-resolution photo

5,120 kb = using navigation for 60 minutes

 

For texting, messages are measured as events rather than in kb and are charged per address (recipient) sent or received.

One message sent to one person = one event

One message sent to 10 persons = 10 events

The text messages show up as a tally on the wireless bill as the number sent and received. Wireless plans vary, with some putting a ceiling on the number of texts per month to unlimited options.

 

By understanding how much data and messaging you use in an average month, it positions you well for selecting the right plan to meet your needs to help you save time and money.

 

If you have questions about saving your company money through the auditing, optimizing, or managing of your wireless services, please click here to contact The Bill Police.

 

Still Protecting Your Wireless Rights…

Its Tax Time! See How Increasing Wireless Taxes Affect Your Bill

Taxes can add up as a portion of Wireless bills – almost 19% of a bill on average – so they are not something to be ignored.  And tax rates are rising:  2014, 2015 and now calendar 2016 tax rates increased year over year and are at a record high.

 

According to the National Tax Foundation, “Taxes and fees on wireless consumers increased to a record high 18.6% of the average U.S. customer’s monthly bill. In just two years, the average wireless tax burden has increased by 1.5 percentage points, and wireless taxes are now 4.5 percentage points higher than they were ten years ago. A typical American household with four wireless phones paying $100 per month for wireless voice service is now paying nearly $225 per year in taxes, fees, and government surcharges”  Wow — thats a new Smartphone, yo!

 

Here’s the thing we find most interesting:

Since 2008, while Wireless Rates are continuing to decrease, (this is why you must watch your wireless bill!) from $46.44 per month in 2015 to $44.65 in 2016, (a 4% decrease), wireless taxes and fees have increased from 15.1%  to the new record of 18.6% (a 23% increase!).

 

So, even if you are watching your bill and decreasing your monthly cost, you still got whacked with a higher burden tax rate than a typical consumer which can offset much of the net savings!  Thanks Uncle Sam!!

 

You will see this in the Tax Foundation’s graphic below.  The Foundation states, “national trends in state and local average tax rates on wireless service between 2003 and 2016. Between 2005 and 2006, wireless tax burdens dropped after a series of federal court decisions forced the IRS to end the imposition of the 3% federal excise tax on wireless service, reducing the average overall tax burden to 14.1%. Since then, rates climbed steadily until hitting the current record of 18.6%.”

 

How are Rates Charged?

Congress passed a Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act in 2002, which states that “a cell phone subscriber is liable for cell phone taxes only in his or her “place of primary use.”

Therefore, if you have an Ohio phone number, but live in Virginia and primarily use your mobile device in Virginia, you will liable for taxes only in Virginia.

 

What are the Tax Rates? 

Tax rates average over 18% of a wireless bill but change based on location.  This rate is almost 2.5 times higher than the average tax rates mandated on most other taxable goods and services, so get your money’s worth!  Check out the below Map to see where you stand in relation to the rest of the country.

Source:  Tax Foundation

 

Hints on How to Manage Taxes

 

Keep your base rates low:  BPI recently renegotiated rates and reduced a Client’s bill by over $50,000 per month (no, that’s not a typo, that’s a bunch of green).  In doing so, taxes were decreased by over $15,000 per month because taxes are figured as a percent of the billed amount:  lower rates, lower base to tax as a percent, lower tax.

So, the first BIG way to reduce taxes is to reduce your wireless spend.   Keep monitoring those bills and continuing reductions:  this will keep your taxes lower as a result.

 

Audit your Taxes and Fees: 

The best way to make sure you are being taxed the correct amount is to actually compare your actual rates to what you should be charged.  Yes, spend the weekend pretending you are a cool bill auditor and see how heroic you can become with your savings.  Frequently, the state rates can be incorrect.   Check out this link to find out what your Federal and State rates and look for Table 2.

 

Watch your Device Types with Surcharges and Rates:  In a recent BPI audit it was determined that a significant portion of the incorrect billings were due to State Taxes and Surcharges by device type:

  • Tax rates are different for different device types. In Virginia, for example, Smartphones should be charged a tax rate of 4% while Phone-only Devices should be charged a rate of 3.3%.  BPI found examples of Phone-Only Devices being charged at the Smartphone Rate.
  • State surcharges were charged for a smartphone but the billed device was phone-only. This was a 40% difference in rate and can add up over many devices.

 

So on this years Tax Weekend, make your taxes work for you: go ride on some publicly provided roads, enjoy your local library and if you go celebrate too hard, maybe you’ll have some cool interaction with some fellow brothers and sisters in blue.

 

If you have questions about saving your company money through the auditing, optimizing, or managing of your wireless services, please click here to contact The Bill Police.

Throttle vs Prioritize: What’s the Difference?

Because of the recent unveiling of Unlimited Plans, we have fielded lots of questions about the the difference between Throttling and Prioritizing (the recent Verizon Unlimited plans do both depending on the device type).

This blog will review the differences and what it means to you.

 

As you know, no wireless carrier plans are truly unlimited.  See our earlier blog about “Unlimited” being not so much here.    (Should we establish new vernacular of “fake unlimited”? )  That said, the carriers deal with “Unlimited” plans in 2 ways:  Prioritize or Throttle.

 

Throttling

If a wireless device reaches a pre-determined amount of data usage within a billing cycle, the data speed is then reduced to a pre-determined amount of data speed for the remainder of the billing cycle.

 

An Example

The new Verizon “Unlimited” plan, data only devices have “Unlimited” data usage up to 10GB of usage.  At this point, the data speed is reduced to 3G speed or about 600kbps.  So, Verizon will guarantee you full 4G LTE speed for the first 10GB of data usage for Data Only Devices then put on the brakes for the rest of the billing period.

 

 

Prioritization

If a wireless device reaches a pre-determined amount of data usage within a billing cycle, and there is congestion on the network, then data usage is Prioritized behind other users to an undetermined speed for the remainder of the congested time.   This speed may range from not able to work due to lack of speed (we have heard feedback that this has occurred to some users) or data speeds may just be very slow for an unspecified period of time.  This should not be for the remainder of billing cycle –like Throttling is — but for a shorter period of time.

Basically, users will get full-speed data up to the de-prioritization threshold, and then full-speed if the network is not congested.  The risk is with your usage vs the network’s usage. Note that for some MVNOs (resellers) even on the non-prioritized portion, the speed is capped because they will come second to a major carrier’s network making room for the carrier to deliver faster speeds for their direct users.

 

An Example

For Smartphones, Verizon will guarantee full-speed 4G LTE for first 22GB of data per billing period then speed will be slowed by an unspecified amount if the network is congested.   What is “congestion” and what is the slower speed?   This has not been specifically defined by the carriers.  This undetermined status leaves the carrier with freedom to let lower data users to get full-speed over higher data users.

 

TMobile talks about their prioritization on their site:   “About T-Mobile” page under heading “Network and Management for Extremely High Data Usage and Tethering” that the top 3% will have their data usage prioritized below the data usage of other customers at times and at locations where there are competing customer demands for network resources which may result in slower speeds.  Note that TMobile updates the prioritization schedule quarterly.  This may result in slower speeds for up to 3 months (!)

 

 

Prioritization vs Throttling Comparison

  • Throttle affects the user for the remainder of the billing cycle
  • Prioritize affects the user for the remainder of the congested period but may be adjusted as short as hourly or as much as quarterly (see user comments below)
  • Throttling relates only a user to a users own usage requirement:  if you reach your own capacity of data allowance, throttling occurs.
  • Prioritization depends on how your usage relates to others.  If you are using a high amount of data (typically defined as in the top (typically 3-5%, — usually over about 22-28 GB within a billing cycle), you will be prioritized if congested
  • Neither option allows a user to have truly unlimited data (either speed or amount of data are not provided at an unlimited amount)

 

Here are some direct user comments about Prioritizing and Throttling:

“I’m being deprioritizated. The HE’LL it isn’t throttling. It’s actually worse than throttling. Already when you’re throttled you know your going to get at least 3g speeds. When you’re deprioritized your connconnection gets cut and “deprioritized” then as you reconnect your data speed has to build back up from zero. I’ve done numerous tests on and I regularly get less than 1Mbps. ..I see the speeds fluctuate from a compete stop of data flow, then I watch the speed rise slowly sometimes up to 5Mbps or 7Mbps (NEVER MORE THAN 7Mbps) then, I get depriortized and my speeds drop down to .026Mbps or less then, it reconnects and they process starts over again. When your constantly being kicked off the network and reconnecting you get ridiculously slow transfers, SLOWER than if I was just being throttled.”

“Hell, at least you got to run a speedtest. My OOKLA speedtest app would not even run when I got throttled (IDGAF how you want to change the definition of “unlimited”, it’s throttling). My Google apps would not even work. No email. Couldn’t even add a Google account. Ridiculous”.

 

So there you have it:  if you want to know if any of the latest plans are fit for you, be sure to contact because we are still…….

……protecting your wireless rights!

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