Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Martin List-Petersen]

We have CenturyLink, Cogent, NTT and Viatel in the mix for IP transit.

CenturyLink and Cogent are unproblematic, unless you change something 
(like upgrading a circuit).


Cogent will fix billing issues quickly, but they do crop up.

CenturyLink is not very communicative. Can't fault the service, but 
their billing department is a mess.


We've had Viatel for years without much issues. They are an european Tier 2.

NTT only just enabled their PoP where we haul our backhaul from, so time 
will show. But they've been very proactive.


We used to have PacketExchange, but left them because they were a mess. 
They were taken over by or merged with GTT eventually. We moved to 
Tiscali back then, which became TInet and then changed name 2 more times 
before they got swallowed up by GTT. So we ended up where we started .. 
including all the problems that came with it.


Connectivity was solid enough, once you didn't have to deal with them. 
But when they increased our monthly pricing, which already was on the 
higher scale of what we pay in the mix ... we told them to go away.


Kind regards,
Martin List-Petersen
Airwire Ltd.


On 03/12/2018 14:11, Tom Beecher wrote:

There are quite a few not crappy vendors out there, regardless of my snark.
NTT is definitely one of the better ones.

Unfortunately, telecommunications billing is only slightly less complex
than medical billing, and there are plenty of vendors that have made those
decisions to invest in more financial engineering than technical since, as
has been said, they can.





On Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 9:05 AM Martin List-Petersen 
wrote:


On 03/12/2018 14:01, Tom Beecher wrote:

"Cancelled all GTT connections and replaced them
with a carrier, that doesn't try to screw their customer base."

Who is this magical unicorn? :)


Replaced that circuit with NTT. So far, very pleased with that.

Kind regards,
Martin List-Petersen
Airwire Ltd.




On Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 8:51 AM Martin List-Petersen 
wrote:


On 02/12/2018 22:06, Brandon Wade via NANOG wrote:

We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we
now have a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We
only purchase IP Transit services from them, nothing else, and have
never had any fees tacked on top of our contracted agreed upon amount.
Has anyone else ran into this? If this is a legit "surcharge" any idea
of why we were never charged for that before? I figured I'd reach out

to

the community on this prior to jumping to further conclusions.

-Brandon


Hi,

I'm not sure, if thats a stateside thing, but GTT started increasing the
prices on customers that were out of contract to try and get them back
into a long term contract.

For us that was the last straw, where we simply told them to take their
IP transit and keep it. Cancelled all GTT connections and replaced them
with a carrier, that doesn't try to screw their customer base.

Kind regards,
Martin List-Petersen
--
Airwire Ltd. - Ag Nascadh Pobail an Iarthair
http://www.airwire.ie
Phone: 091-395 000
Registered Office: Moy, Kinvara, Co. Galway, 091-395 000 - Registered in
Ireland No. 508961






--
Airwire Ltd. - Ag Nascadh Pobail an Iarthair
http://www.airwire.ie
Phone: 091-395 000
Registered Office: Moy, Kinvara, Co. Galway, 091-395 000 - Registered in
Ireland No. 508961






--
Airwire Ltd. - Ag Nascadh Pobail an Iarthair
http://www.airwire.ie
Phone: 091-395 000
Registered Office: Moy, Kinvara, Co. Galway, 091-395 000 - Registered in 
Ireland No. 508961

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Tom Beecher]

There are quite a few not crappy vendors out there, regardless of my snark.
NTT is definitely one of the better ones.

Unfortunately, telecommunications billing is only slightly less complex
than medical billing, and there are plenty of vendors that have made those
decisions to invest in more financial engineering than technical since, as
has been said, they can.





On Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 9:05 AM Martin List-Petersen 
wrote:

> On 03/12/2018 14:01, Tom Beecher wrote:
> > "Cancelled all GTT connections and replaced them
> > with a carrier, that doesn't try to screw their customer base."
> >
> > Who is this magical unicorn? :)
>
> Replaced that circuit with NTT. So far, very pleased with that.
>
> Kind regards,
> Martin List-Petersen
> Airwire Ltd.
>
>
> >
> > On Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 8:51 AM Martin List-Petersen 
> > wrote:
> >
> >> On 02/12/2018 22:06, Brandon Wade via NANOG wrote:
> >>> We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we
> >>> now have a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We
> >>> only purchase IP Transit services from them, nothing else, and have
> >>> never had any fees tacked on top of our contracted agreed upon amount.
> >>> Has anyone else ran into this? If this is a legit "surcharge" any idea
> >>> of why we were never charged for that before? I figured I'd reach out
> to
> >>> the community on this prior to jumping to further conclusions.
> >>>
> >>> -Brandon
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I'm not sure, if thats a stateside thing, but GTT started increasing the
> >> prices on customers that were out of contract to try and get them back
> >> into a long term contract.
> >>
> >> For us that was the last straw, where we simply told them to take their
> >> IP transit and keep it. Cancelled all GTT connections and replaced them
> >> with a carrier, that doesn't try to screw their customer base.
> >>
> >> Kind regards,
> >> Martin List-Petersen
> >> --
> >> Airwire Ltd. - Ag Nascadh Pobail an Iarthair
> >> http://www.airwire.ie
> >> Phone: 091-395 000
> >> Registered Office: Moy, Kinvara, Co. Galway, 091-395 000 - Registered in
> >> Ireland No. 508961
> >>
> >
>
>
> --
> Airwire Ltd. - Ag Nascadh Pobail an Iarthair
> http://www.airwire.ie
> Phone: 091-395 000
> Registered Office: Moy, Kinvara, Co. Galway, 091-395 000 - Registered in
> Ireland No. 508961
>

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Martin List-Petersen]

On 03/12/2018 14:01, Tom Beecher wrote:

"Cancelled all GTT connections and replaced them
with a carrier, that doesn't try to screw their customer base."

Who is this magical unicorn? :)


Replaced that circuit with NTT. So far, very pleased with that.

Kind regards,
Martin List-Petersen
Airwire Ltd.




On Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 8:51 AM Martin List-Petersen 
wrote:


On 02/12/2018 22:06, Brandon Wade via NANOG wrote:

We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we
now have a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We
only purchase IP Transit services from them, nothing else, and have
never had any fees tacked on top of our contracted agreed upon amount.
Has anyone else ran into this? If this is a legit "surcharge" any idea
of why we were never charged for that before? I figured I'd reach out to
the community on this prior to jumping to further conclusions.

-Brandon


Hi,

I'm not sure, if thats a stateside thing, but GTT started increasing the
prices on customers that were out of contract to try and get them back
into a long term contract.

For us that was the last straw, where we simply told them to take their
IP transit and keep it. Cancelled all GTT connections and replaced them
with a carrier, that doesn't try to screw their customer base.

Kind regards,
Martin List-Petersen
--
Airwire Ltd. - Ag Nascadh Pobail an Iarthair
http://www.airwire.ie
Phone: 091-395 000
Registered Office: Moy, Kinvara, Co. Galway, 091-395 000 - Registered in
Ireland No. 508961






--
Airwire Ltd. - Ag Nascadh Pobail an Iarthair
http://www.airwire.ie
Phone: 091-395 000
Registered Office: Moy, Kinvara, Co. Galway, 091-395 000 - Registered in 
Ireland No. 508961

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Mike Hammett]

"Should not". I hear of ISPs fighting it all of the time. 




- 
Mike Hammett 
Intelligent Computing Solutions 

Midwest Internet Exchange 

The Brothers WISP 

- Original Message -

From: "Matt Harris"  
To: na...@ics-il.net 
Cc: brandonw...@yahoo.com, "North American Network Operators' Group" 
 
Sent: Sunday, December 2, 2018 4:48:45 PM 
Subject: Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge 




On Sun, Dec 2, 2018 at 4:41 PM Mike Hammett < na...@ics-il.net > wrote: 



Maybe this? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Service_Fund 
https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service-fund 
https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service 


Kinda crappy they don't spell it out. Well, no, I guess USF would be closer to 
+-18%. 







USF should not apply to IP transit connectivity wherein the connection between 
the transit provider and the customer does not cross state lines. 

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Tom Beecher]

"Cancelled all GTT connections and replaced them
with a carrier, that doesn't try to screw their customer base."

Who is this magical unicorn? :)

On Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 8:51 AM Martin List-Petersen 
wrote:

> On 02/12/2018 22:06, Brandon Wade via NANOG wrote:
> > We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we
> > now have a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We
> > only purchase IP Transit services from them, nothing else, and have
> > never had any fees tacked on top of our contracted agreed upon amount.
> > Has anyone else ran into this? If this is a legit "surcharge" any idea
> > of why we were never charged for that before? I figured I'd reach out to
> > the community on this prior to jumping to further conclusions.
> >
> > -Brandon
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm not sure, if thats a stateside thing, but GTT started increasing the
> prices on customers that were out of contract to try and get them back
> into a long term contract.
>
> For us that was the last straw, where we simply told them to take their
> IP transit and keep it. Cancelled all GTT connections and replaced them
> with a carrier, that doesn't try to screw their customer base.
>
> Kind regards,
> Martin List-Petersen
> --
> Airwire Ltd. - Ag Nascadh Pobail an Iarthair
> http://www.airwire.ie
> Phone: 091-395 000
> Registered Office: Moy, Kinvara, Co. Galway, 091-395 000 - Registered in
> Ireland No. 508961
>

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Martin List-Petersen]

On 02/12/2018 22:06, Brandon Wade via NANOG wrote:
We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we 
now have a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We 
only purchase IP Transit services from them, nothing else, and have 
never had any fees tacked on top of our contracted agreed upon amount. 
Has anyone else ran into this? If this is a legit "surcharge" any idea 
of why we were never charged for that before? I figured I'd reach out to 
the community on this prior to jumping to further conclusions.


-Brandon


Hi,

I'm not sure, if thats a stateside thing, but GTT started increasing the 
prices on customers that were out of contract to try and get them back 
into a long term contract.


For us that was the last straw, where we simply told them to take their 
IP transit and keep it. Cancelled all GTT connections and replaced them 
with a carrier, that doesn't try to screw their customer base.


Kind regards,
Martin List-Petersen
--
Airwire Ltd. - Ag Nascadh Pobail an Iarthair
http://www.airwire.ie
Phone: 091-395 000
Registered Office: Moy, Kinvara, Co. Galway, 091-395 000 - Registered in 
Ireland No. 508961

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Jason Hellenthal]

Down on the farm

-- 
 J. Hellenthal

The fact that there's a highway to Hell but only a stairway to Heaven says a 
lot about anticipated traffic volume.

> On Dec 2, 2018, at 20:17, bob evans  wrote:
> 
> I think it's because they need to...not for any legal reason, but to
> increase cash flow by every penny possible. As they just spend 2.3 billion
> dollars on an acquisition. Every penny they can add to a bill is an
> attempt to slow the bleeding that resulting from over borrowing.
> 
> 3600 employees, huge major acquisitions half a billion here - 2 billion
> there, where is this money coming from? Buying sales organizations with no
> network?
> 
> One has to ask is this a secretly government funded/owned business? If so,
> which government? Ours?
> 
> Bob Evans
> CTO/Founder
> 
>>> On Dec 2, 2018, at 6:04 PM, Clayton Zekelman  wrote:
>>> 
>>> I can't imagine how the corporate sociopaths could justify charging an
>>> American recovery fee on a service delivered in Canada.
>> 
>> I would speculate that the reason is ever popular ‘because they can”.
>> 
>> James R. Cutler
>> james.cut...@consultant.com
>> PGP keys at http://pgp.mit.edu
> 
> 

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[bob evans]

I think it's because they need to...not for any legal reason, but to
increase cash flow by every penny possible. As they just spend 2.3 billion
dollars on an acquisition. Every penny they can add to a bill is an
attempt to slow the bleeding that resulting from over borrowing.

3600 employees, huge major acquisitions half a billion here - 2 billion
there, where is this money coming from? Buying sales organizations with no
network?

One has to ask is this a secretly government funded/owned business? If so,
which government? Ours?

Bob Evans
CTO/Founder

> On Dec 2, 2018, at 6:04 PM, Clayton Zekelman  wrote:
>>
>> I can't imagine how the corporate sociopaths could justify charging an
>> American recovery fee on a service delivered in Canada.
>
> I would speculate that the reason is ever popular ‘because they can”.
>
> James R. Cutler
> james.cut...@consultant.com
> PGP keys at http://pgp.mit.edu

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Oliver O'Boyle]

Well... they can until they can't because I'm no longer a customer...

On December 2, 2018, at 6:23 PM, James R Cutler  
wrote:

On Dec 2, 2018, at 6:04 PM, Clayton Zekelman  wrote:


I can't imagine how the corporate sociopaths could justify charging an American 
recovery fee on a service delivered in Canada.


I would speculate that the reason is ever popular ‘because they can”.


James R. Cutler

james.cut...@consultant.com

PGP keys at http://pgp.mit.edu

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Oliver O'Boyle]

Same situation with us. We have dozens of circuits with them as a result of 
that acquisition and the previous ACI acquisition of Canopco and OneConnect.

Not impressed. Not a happy customer. Already flipping to alternatives.

On December 2, 2018, at 5:31 PM, Clayton Zekelman  wrote:



GTT is rapidly losing any good will they've had with us over the past number of 
years.


We just got hit with that regulatory recovery fee too, and they totally screwed 
up the transfer of billing operations when they bought our colo provider, 
Accelerated Connections (which used to be an awesome company) in Toronto.



Sent from my iPhone


On Dec 2, 2018, at 5:11 PM, Matt Harris  wrote:

On Sun, Dec 2, 2018 at 4:06 PM Brandon Wade via NANOG  wrote:

We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we now have 
a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We only purchase IP 
Transit services from them, nothing else, and have never had any fees tacked on 
top of our contracted agreed upon amount. Has anyone else ran into this? If 
this is a legit "surcharge" any idea of why we were never charged for that 
before? I figured I'd reach out to the community on this prior to jumping to 
further conclusions. 


-Brandon


Yupp, on my GTT IP transit bill as well.  


This is how telecomm companies pad out their margins these days.  You don't 
even want to know the % of my bill that is just "fees" I'm paying Level3 on a 
wave circuit.  At this point I won't sign for service without knowing exactly 
what I'll be paying in terms of fees and surcharges and such - there's some 
stuff you can't avoid on some types of circuits, but for the most part, it's 
all just padding out their margins.  


Take care,

Matt

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Paul Stewart]

Yeah similar experience here …. But we’ve had that fee for a number of years 
applied.  Hibernia as well has been charging us for it since long ago ….

ACI – yup going downhill in a hurry ;(

From: NANOG  on behalf of Clayton Zekelman 

Date: Sunday, December 2, 2018 at 5:30 PM
To: Matt Harris 
Cc: "brandonw...@yahoo.com" , North American Network 
Operators' Group 
Subject: Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge


GTT is rapidly losing any good will they've had with us over the past number of 
years.

We just got hit with that regulatory recovery fee too, and they totally screwed 
up the transfer of billing operations when they bought our colo provider, 
Accelerated Connections (which used to be an awesome company) in Toronto.


Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 2, 2018, at 5:11 PM, Matt Harris 
mailto:m...@netfire.net>> wrote:
On Sun, Dec 2, 2018 at 4:06 PM Brandon Wade via NANOG 
mailto:nanog@nanog.org>> wrote:
We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we now have 
a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We only purchase IP 
Transit services from them, nothing else, and have never had any fees tacked on 
top of our contracted agreed upon amount. Has anyone else ran into this? If 
this is a legit "surcharge" any idea of why we were never charged for that 
before? I figured I'd reach out to the community on this prior to jumping to 
further conclusions.

-Brandon

Yupp, on my GTT IP transit bill as well.

This is how telecomm companies pad out their margins these days.  You don't 
even want to know the % of my bill that is just "fees" I'm paying Level3 on a 
wave circuit.  At this point I won't sign for service without knowing exactly 
what I'll be paying in terms of fees and surcharges and such - there's some 
stuff you can't avoid on some types of circuits, but for the most part, it's 
all just padding out their margins.

Take care,
Matt

RE: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[K MEKKAOUI]

Our experience with GTT was just a nightmare. All kinds of billing problems and 
surcharges (finance surcharge, regulatory surcharge, etc.). As soon as we 
finished the contract, we just stopped our business with them. Now, lawyers are 
taking over.

 

KARIM M.

 

From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org] On Behalf Of William Herrin
Sent: December 2, 2018 6:31 PM
To: Mike Hammett
Cc: brandonw...@yahoo.com; nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

 

On Sun, Dec 2, 2018 at 2:41 PM Mike Hammett  wrote:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Service_Fund

https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service-fund

https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service

Kinda crappy they don't spell it out. Well, no, I guess USF would be closer to 
+-18%.

 

Doubt it. They usually specify USF because they don't get to keep that money.

 

The generic "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" is money they keep. They may in 
some tangential way have an increased cost engineering their network to comply 
with government regulations but whatever it is there's no connection to your 
particular bill.

 

Sort of like the airline "fuel surcharge" that never quite goes away when the 
price of fuel drops.

 

Regards,

Bill Herrin



-- 

William Herrin  her...@dirtside.com  b...@herrin.us
Dirtside Systems . Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Chris Adams]

Once upon a time, Brandon Wade via NANOG  said:
> We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we now 
> have a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We only 
> purchase IP Transit services from them, nothing else, and have never had any 
> fees tacked on top of our contracted agreed upon amount. Has anyone else ran 
> into this? If this is a legit "surcharge" any idea of why we were never 
> charged for that before? I figured I'd reach out to the community on this 
> prior to jumping to further conclusions. 

It's a "because they can" fee - consumer cable and phone companies have
been doing this for years to advertise lower prices and raise rates on
customers in a fixed-price contract.  So far, there hasn't been
sufficient push-back to make it stop (and almost all of these contracts
have binding arbitration clauses, so nobody can get it to a court for a
precedent-setting decision).

-- 
Chris Adams 

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[William Herrin]

On Sun, Dec 2, 2018 at 2:41 PM Mike Hammett  wrote:

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Service_Fund
> https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service-fund
> https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service
>
> Kinda crappy they don't spell it out. Well, no, I guess USF would be
> closer to +-18%.
>

Doubt it. They usually specify USF because they don't get to keep that
money.

The generic "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" is money they keep. They may in
some tangential way have an increased cost engineering their network to
comply with government regulations but whatever it is there's no connection
to your particular bill.

Sort of like the airline "fuel surcharge" that never quite goes away when
the price of fuel drops.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William Herrin  her...@dirtside.com  b...@herrin.us
Dirtside Systems . Web: 

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Owen DeLong]

Nope… IP transit doesn’t pay into USF generally speaking.

USF is billed as a separate line item (at least on the bills I get where it is 
a factor).

The “regulatory recovery fee” is a bs name telcos use to make it sound like a 
tax they are passing on to the government. In reality, it’s a slush fund to 
help pay for their lobbying efforts to get congress and various PUCs to help 
them screw over their customers even more.

Owen


> On Dec 2, 2018, at 14:41 , Mike Hammett  wrote:
> 
> Maybe this?
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Service_Fund 
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Service_Fund>
> https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service-fund 
> <https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service-fund>
> https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service 
> <https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service>
> 
> 
> Kinda crappy they don't spell it out. Well, no, I guess USF would be closer 
> to +-18%.
> 
> 
> 
> -
> Mike Hammett
> Intelligent Computing Solutions <http://www.ics-il.com/>
>  <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL> 
> <https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb> 
> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions> 
> <https://twitter.com/ICSIL>
> Midwest Internet Exchange <http://www.midwest-ix.com/>
>  <https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix> 
> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange> 
> <https://twitter.com/mdwestix>
> The Brothers WISP <http://www.thebrotherswisp.com/>
>  <https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherswisp> 
> <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXSdfxQv7SpoRQYNyLwntZg>
> From: "Brandon Wade via NANOG" 
> To: nanog@nanog.org
> Sent: Sunday, December 2, 2018 4:06:30 PM
> Subject: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge
> 
> We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we now 
> have a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We only 
> purchase IP Transit services from them, nothing else, and have never had any 
> fees tacked on top of our contracted agreed upon amount. Has anyone else ran 
> into this? If this is a legit "surcharge" any idea of why we were never 
> charged for that before? I figured I'd reach out to the community on this 
> prior to jumping to further conclusions. 
> 
> -Brandon

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[James R Cutler]

On Dec 2, 2018, at 6:04 PM, Clayton Zekelman  wrote:
> 
> I can't imagine how the corporate sociopaths could justify charging an 
> American recovery fee on a service delivered in Canada.

I would speculate that the reason is ever popular ‘because they can”.

James R. Cutler
james.cut...@consultant.com
PGP keys at http://pgp.mit.edu

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Clayton Zekelman]

They are charging it to us on a connection they deliver in Toronto Canada.  I 
can't imagine how the corporate sociopaths could justify charging an American 
recovery fee on a service delivered in Canada.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 2, 2018, at 5:48 PM, Matt Harris  wrote:
> 
>> On Sun, Dec 2, 2018 at 4:41 PM Mike Hammett  wrote:
>> Maybe this?
>> 
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Service_Fund
>> https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service-fund
>> https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service
>> 
>> 
>> Kinda crappy they don't spell it out. Well, no, I guess USF would be closer 
>> to +-18%.
>> 
> 
> USF should not apply to IP transit connectivity wherein the connection 
> between the transit provider and the customer does not cross state lines.  
> 

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Matt Harris]

On Sun, Dec 2, 2018 at 4:41 PM Mike Hammett  wrote:

> Maybe this?
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Service_Fund
> https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service-fund
> https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service
>
>
> Kinda crappy they don't spell it out. Well, no, I guess USF would be
> closer to +-18%.
>
>
USF should not apply to IP transit connectivity wherein the connection
between the transit provider and the customer does not cross state lines.

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Mike Hammett]

Maybe this? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Service_Fund 
https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service-fund 
https://www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service 


Kinda crappy they don't spell it out. Well, no, I guess USF would be closer to 
+-18%. 




- 
Mike Hammett 
Intelligent Computing Solutions 

Midwest Internet Exchange 

The Brothers WISP 

- Original Message -

From: "Brandon Wade via NANOG"  
To: nanog@nanog.org 
Sent: Sunday, December 2, 2018 4:06:30 PM 
Subject: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge 


We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we now have 
a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We only purchase IP 
Transit services from them, nothing else, and have never had any fees tacked on 
top of our contracted agreed upon amount. Has anyone else ran into this? If 
this is a legit "surcharge" any idea of why we were never charged for that 
before? I figured I'd reach out to the community on this prior to jumping to 
further conclusions. 


-Brandon 

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Eric Dugas]

Saw this on our old GTT bill first and then on our Hibernia account bill when 
they merge their finance dept.

Filled a dispute with GTT finance and after multiple fights, we got these 
surcharges removed. We ended up with a HUGE mess on our bills, charged in USD 
when our contracts were in CAD, double-billing, etc. We lost patience and 
cancelled everything.
At least, they should specify the actual amount of the charge on the contract.
Eric
On Dec 2 2018, at 5:30 pm, Clayton Zekelman  wrote:
>
> GTT is rapidly losing any good will they've had with us over the past number 
> of years.
>
> We just got hit with that regulatory recovery fee too, and they totally 
> screwed up the transfer of billing operations when they bought our colo 
> provider, Accelerated Connections (which used to be an awesome company) in 
> Toronto.
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Dec 2, 2018, at 5:11 PM, Matt Harris  (mailto:m...@netfire.net)> wrote:
> > On Sun, Dec 2, 2018 at 4:06 PM Brandon Wade via NANOG  > (mailto:nanog@nanog.org)> wrote:
> > > We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we now 
> > > have a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We only 
> > > purchase IP Transit services from them, nothing else, and have never had 
> > > any fees tacked on top of our contracted agreed upon amount. Has anyone 
> > > else ran into this? If this is a legit "surcharge" any idea of why we 
> > > were never charged for that before? I figured I'd reach out to the 
> > > community on this prior to jumping to further conclusions.
> > >
> > > -Brandon
> >
> > Yupp, on my GTT IP transit bill as well.
> >
> > This is how telecomm companies pad out their margins these days. You don't 
> > even want to know the % of my bill that is just "fees" I'm paying Level3 on 
> > a wave circuit. At this point I won't sign for service without knowing 
> > exactly what I'll be paying in terms of fees and surcharges and such - 
> > there's some stuff you can't avoid on some types of circuits, but for the 
> > most part, it's all just padding out their margins.
> >
> > Take care,
> > Matt
> >
> >
>
>

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Clayton Zekelman]

GTT is rapidly losing any good will they've had with us over the past number of 
years.

We just got hit with that regulatory recovery fee too, and they totally screwed 
up the transfer of billing operations when they bought our colo provider, 
Accelerated Connections (which used to be an awesome company) in Toronto.


Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 2, 2018, at 5:11 PM, Matt Harris  wrote:
> 
>> On Sun, Dec 2, 2018 at 4:06 PM Brandon Wade via NANOG  
>> wrote:
>> We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we now 
>> have a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We only 
>> purchase IP Transit services from them, nothing else, and have never had any 
>> fees tacked on top of our contracted agreed upon amount. Has anyone else ran 
>> into this? If this is a legit "surcharge" any idea of why we were never 
>> charged for that before? I figured I'd reach out to the community on this 
>> prior to jumping to further conclusions. 
>> 
>> -Brandon
> 
> 
> Yupp, on my GTT IP transit bill as well.  
> 
> This is how telecomm companies pad out their margins these days.  You don't 
> even want to know the % of my bill that is just "fees" I'm paying Level3 on a 
> wave circuit.  At this point I won't sign for service without knowing exactly 
> what I'll be paying in terms of fees and surcharges and such - there's some 
> stuff you can't avoid on some types of circuits, but for the most part, it's 
> all just padding out their margins.  
> 
> Take care,
> Matt
> 

Re: GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Matt Harris]

On Sun, Dec 2, 2018 at 4:06 PM Brandon Wade via NANOG 
wrote:

> We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we now
> have a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We only
> purchase IP Transit services from them, nothing else, and have never had
> any fees tacked on top of our contracted agreed upon amount. Has anyone
> else ran into this? If this is a legit "surcharge" any idea of why we were
> never charged for that before? I figured I'd reach out to the community on
> this prior to jumping to further conclusions.
>
> -Brandon
>

Yupp, on my GTT IP transit bill as well.

This is how telecomm companies pad out their margins these days.  You don't
even want to know the % of my bill that is just "fees" I'm paying Level3 on
a wave circuit.  At this point I won't sign for service without knowing
exactly what I'll be paying in terms of fees and surcharges and such -
there's some stuff you can't avoid on some types of circuits, but for the
most part, it's all just padding out their margins.

Take care,
Matt

GTT Regulatory Recovery Surcharge

[Brandon Wade via NANOG]

We've been a GTT customer for several years and on our latest bill we now have 
a "Regulatory Recovery Surcharge" of almost 10% tacked on. We only purchase IP 
Transit services from them, nothing else, and have never had any fees tacked on 
top of our contracted agreed upon amount. Has anyone else ran into this? If 
this is a legit "surcharge" any idea of why we were never charged for that 
before? I figured I'd reach out to the community on this prior to jumping to 
further conclusions. 
-Brandon