White House Takes Aim at Cable, Telecommunicaiton Bills

Even as congressional cable bill line item critics were targeting retransmission and sports net fees, the outgoing administration was taking aim at some cable bill line items as well. In a report on hidden fees in various sectors—event ticketing, resorts, airlines—the White House's National Economic Council devoted a section to cable and phone fees, their own and third-party fees, that increase the price of service above the advertised price. "Hence, the subscriber to a $39.99 monthly plan might pay a real price of $46.99 thanks to the addition of an industry-imposed $4 'regulatory cost recovery fee' [the FCC charges cable operators a regulatory fee] and a $3 'administrative fee,' which are all paid to the telephone company, and therefore represent the real price of the service," the report said.

It called the complexity of fees on telecommunication bills a cause for independent concern. The report slammed carriers for "sometimes" adding third-party fees without notice to the consumer. "While carriers may argue that the fees are optional in the sense that they can be removed, given that customers do not affirmatively opt-into paying these fees, they are effectively hidden." The White House suggests that market forces, alone, will not and have not been effective in discouraging hidden fees but gives consumer groups credit for helping moderate them.