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Understanding
your Telephone Bill:
PICC Fees
By
Ken Rothacker
You've heard the
presentations, seen the PowerPoint presentations, and done the spreadsheets.
As you know, evaluating telecommunications services is no picnic.
But the finish line is in sight and you are poised to sign that new
service agreement. However, there
are certain questions you should ask your service provider, whether incumbent
or new, before you sign on the dotted line.
For example:
What
are your PICC fees? PICC
stands for Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier Charge, a charge that appears
on your long distance bill and is charged on each of your phone lines each
month. A product of the Telecom
Act of 1996, PICC fees have been charged since January 1998.
The purpose of PICC is to help your local phone company cover the costs
of providing service. So, your
long distance carrier is just collecting the money and giving it back to your
local company. If a long distance
carrier is not assigned to a given line, the local company has the prerogative
to charge the fee anyway. Different
carriers charge different amounts for PICC.
If this is a mandated cost, why is this so?
Some carriers pass more of the cost through to you, while others absorb
more of the cost. PICC costs are
usually around $4 to $5 per month, per line.
If you have dozens of lines, this can start to add up.
For Centrex lines, the PICC fee will be less - between 50 cents and
$1 per line. If your local
service is delivered on an ISDN PRI circuit, you may get another break.
The long distance carrier does
not bear a PICC cost for numbers on a PRI, so they should pass those savings
through. As is so often the case,
though, you have to ask. Usually,
your long distance carrier will charge you a PICC fee for just the lead
number, or billing telephone number, on a PRI circuit.
Your salesperson may not know that you use Centrex or PRI.
Make sure they know which you are using.
If you have been charged excess PICC fees during your relationship with
a long distance carrier, be sure to ask for that money back.
Your carrier should be willing to refund that money - especially if
it means the difference between keeping and losing your business.
Single-line businesses and residences are exempt from PICC fees.
Strategy:
While PICC is a mandated fee, the actual cost you pay is both variable
and negotiable.
While this might be a question
that your rep doesn't want to get into, knowing this information empowers
you to compare programs accurately and positions you to make the best decision
for your business.
In the next issue, we will
cover the Universal Service Fund or USF.
Industry
veteran Ken Rothacker is president of OmniConnect, Inc, a Chicago based
telecommunications services agency.
Contact Ken via email at
ken@omni-connect.com.
For
more Understanding Your Telephone Bill, see Ken's subsequent
article.
Read
more articles
relevant to hospital and medical related call centers.
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