FCC hanging up on U.S. troops: Agency plans to spike their prepaid calling card rates 20 percent

With "friends" like Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell, our brave soldiers risking that last full measure of devotion abroad cannot afford any enemies. Powell is poised to spike their prepaid phone calling card rates 20 percent or more by reclassifying the low-cost interstate service. For a decade, the FCC has reasoned that pre-recorded advertisements made the cards "information" services exempt from exorbitant access charge fees levied by Baby Bell monopolists to complete interstate calls. The chairman now aims to change that classification to "telecommunications" services in order to saddle card customers with crushing access surcharges to bail out a mismanaged Universal Service Fund program. There may be more inequitable, obtuse and outrageous ways of maltreating the most deserving, but they do not readily come to mind. Low-cost, prepaid cards have emerged as the telephone service of choice for millions of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen. Ditto for low-income, rural, immigrant and similar underprivileged communities. The following portrait of card users speaks volumes: 95 percent of military personnel; 70 percent of African American households; 43 percent of mainstream Hispanic households; and a climbing percentage of senior citizens. For cards costing $25 or more, 55 percent of users are retirees, students or military enlistees; 45 percent sport incomes under $25,000. Prepaid cards are genuine bargains. Rates are as low as 3 cents per minute or less for calling anywhere in the country. In contrast, some area rates approach 35 cents per minute on intrastate calls, and some interstate plans charge 5-10 cents per minute plus monthly fees and surcharges. Powell's ill-conceived plan to gouge American soldiers and to plunge their morale while they are fighting for his freedom has met vocal opposition and astonishment.