I recently negotiated a new contract with a tier1 for IP transit in Canada and
just got the invoice. I saw a "new" Regulatory Recovery Surcharge of 10% the
MRC (before taxes) that I've never seen before. Do any of my Canadian fellows
on this list are paying this outrageous surcharge?
Other than saying "it's in the MSA", our rep, their tax and billing department
are not useful at all. The actual rate is not specified anywhere in the MSA or
in the contract.
We don't explicitly pay a charge like this for the transit bandwidth we purchase in Toronto from an international carrier, and I doubt that it is built into the cost without any mention of it. I've never heard of such a thing.
Graham Johnston
Network Planner
Westman Communications Group
204.717.2829
johnstong@westmancom.com
From what I've gathered so far, every other carriers that we use are either
invoicing us from Canada or outside the US (e.g. Telia from Vancouver, BC and
Cogent from Toronto, ON).
A couple of minutes after firing my first email, our rep called me to follow
up. He'll escalate this as far as he can with his COO and CFO and suggested
two scenarios.
We don't explicitly pay a charge like this for the transit bandwidth we
purchase in Toronto from an international carrier, and I doubt that it is
built into the cost without any mention of it. I've never heard of such a
thing.
Graham Johnston
Network Planner
Westman Communications Group
204.717.2829
johnstong@westmancom.com
These costs are related to federal, provincial and/or municipal mandates,
programs and requirements such as provincial 9-1-1 fees, spectrum
acquisition, licensing charges, and contribution charges to help subsidize
telephone service in rural and remote areas. These costs are not taxes or
amounts that the government requires carriers to collect. The specific
amount of these costs can vary as the fees/costs of government
mandates/programs change.
I would have them outline what regulatory costs they incur, as they have to
justify the extension of these costs, or in my opinion it is a form of
fraud.
Todd Grand
On transit though? We in the US pay all of these types of fees as well though not on service outside of telephone.
Luke Guillory
Network Operations Manager
Tel: 985.536.1212
Fax: 985.536.0300
Email: lguillory@reservetele.com
Reserve Telecommunications
100 RTC Dr
Reserve, LA 70084
We've never seen anything like this on our Canadian transit bills (Cogent,
NAC, GTT, Hurricane.)
/kc
In reply to the group as my reply was only to Luke.
This is why I say, they should need to justify the extension of these costs.
In my opinion a transit provider should not have any justification to extend said costs.
One might suggest that the unjustified extension of these costs could be construed as fraudulent charges.
Todd Grand
I just went back over my email string with one of our transit providers since I recalled submitting an exempt form for something.
They added the Federal Universal Service Fund Surcharge to our transit link, odd since this isn't a voice related circuit. This also wasn't on the quote or anything else, sales tax is assumed but this wasn't. I'm sure it's buried in an agreement somewhere.
I still believe the onus is on them to justify the extension of these costs,
regardless of what was in the agreement.
Todd Grand
For sure