Many people notice the ludicrous phone fees the phone companies charge. Some are indeed passed on taxes and fees imposed by government (though phone companies seem to love adding on fees and saying or implying they are government taxes when that is not completely clear). I got rid of my land line phone for Vonage, years ago. Vonage started to add on all sorts of fees so I dropped it and went with Ooma (free after the initial purchase $203 for me).
Ooma has now decided they need to change $12/year in fees (very reasonable I think). But they are not going to charge those, like me, that bought before this change (it has been 100% free for me for the last year). Great service (and a huge contrast to the attitude of typical phone companies looking to gouge everyone they can).
I also use and recommend Google Voice. They have to deal with another form of government approved fees for local phone companies. Some are using traffic pumping and high charges to gouge Google. I am glad Google is taking on these pumpers.
Related: Sex, conference calls, and outdated FCC rules – Telephone Savings – Paying for Over-spending – $8,000 Per Gallon Ink
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The problem is that Google IS NOT “taking on” anything. They are illegally blocking access to these exchanges in order to avoid paying access fees. This is a tactic that AT&T, Verizon, and many other phone providers have tried for years – and failed – because the FCC has ruled that they cannot block consumer access to these numbers. Google has not decided to join with AT&T and others to take this on, instead they are trying to hide behind telecoms laws and claiming that they are a data service – the same laws that Vonage and other VoIP providers also tried to use, and also failed.