Why did the FCC authorize increases in the federal SLC?
As part of its effort to promote competition, the FCC reviewed the rules and regulations that govern the telephone industry and decided to rebalance rates and charges. The SLC increases reflect the FCC’s belief that end-user customers should be more directly responsible for the costs necessary to provide them service and that the “access charges” paid by long-distance companies should be reduced. In 2000, the FCC authorized the first in a series of SLC increases for the large local companies. Reasoning that rural customers should pay the same levels of subscriber line charges as urban customers, the FCC expanded the SLC changes to community based telecom providers in 2001.
