Why Does Every Company Need Telecom Auditing

  Keep our Telecom Terms page open when going through agreements and other things that you may have to decipher because you aren't sure about some of the terminology. Just about everything you need to define is right here, or you can give us a call and we'll be glad to help. 800-476-5655

Are your telecom taxes right, or are you paying way too much? In almost every instance when  t elecommunications billing is reviewed by a corporate department, be it the IT department, or Accounts Payable, the taxes and fees portion of the billing is completely ignored because they are assumed to be correct. After all, these are local tax, state tax and federal tax charges, and they are certainly correct, right?  Wrong. There are over 55,000 taxing jurisdictions in the United States, all trying to get their piece of the pie, and your telecom billing is part of that pie. These taxes and fees make up a significant portion of the billing amount that you pay every month, typically nine to fourteen percent, but with the boom in wireless communications , new ways of taxing wireless services have proliferated and, in some areas, have reached a previously unheard-of 40% of the bill total. Telecom providers generate the billing which includes the 911 , USF , Access Ch...

Mobile hotspots are battery-powered standalone devices that use your phone’s cellular network to create a wireless internet connection for a laptop or other device, very much like a modem and router. The hotspot is charged with a USB connection. Hotspots are available from your cellular provider and typically require a mobile data plan with your provider to pay for the additional data usage. While you can use your smartphone as a WiFi access point to connect another smartphone, or device (referred to as tethering) you should check with your wireless provider as these services could be limited by plan or be subject to additional charges and may require newer device operating systems. While both the smartphone and hotspot will allow users to connect to the wireless device’s service, the hotspot will provide greater range and allow the operation of more devices from the same access point. Plus, the hotspot provides a WPA-2 encrypted service, known data charges and good b...

Telecommunications services are two words that have taken on a whole new meaning then when they were originally used to describe point-to-point transmissions between telegraphs and later, wireline services , phones and telephone systems. Today’s definition of telecommunications services  also known as telecom services include technologies that aren’t necessarily provided by the same types of businesses and in many cases the newer technologies will eventually supplant existing telecom technologies commonly in use today. Wired and wireless voice communications , optic fiber transmission, the internet and wireless data networks , radio, television, satellite networks and other types of data transmission and communication all fall into telecommunications services. With the possible exception of electricity, few if any new telecom technologies and telecom services have had such an immediate impact that resulted in almost total reliance on that new technology. Business t...

Long Distance Contract Management Can Add Valuable Knowledge to Existing Skills IT Managers, Network Engineers , Network Managers, and Telecom Managers can increase their skills by taking this long distance contract management workshop. They will learn valuable telecom contract management skills that will enable them to have a better understanding of the long distance contracts that are used by different Long Distance Service Providers . Additionally, they will learn  some of nuances of the differing contract terms and conditions.  These managers will learn about telecom contract language and what a Minimum Annual Revenue Commitment ( MARC ) is, and the essentials of the Service Level Agreements (SLA). IT Managers, Network Managers and Engineers who complete this telecom long distance workshop will have the ability to review any telecom long distance contract with ease. Moreover, they can view both current and any future invoices, with a knowledgeable eye for t...

Cramming: What it is and what you can do about it. In the last few years, smartphones and tablets have become the norm for cellular and wireless communication. Since these devices are essentially portable computers, bill payment, money transfers and online purchases have and will continue to become more and more common. Unfortunately, it follows that crooked schemes will become more common as well. Even placing a classified advertisement will almost invariably attract someone trying to cheat you out of your money. So, what is cramming? Simply put, cramming is placing fraudulent charges on your phone bills, but, with legitimate charges appearing there too. Y our phone bill might look more like a credit card statement than a phone bill. You need to take steps to keep from getting ripped off with phony charges. It’s important to review your bills every month for these kinds of scams. Some will be obvious and easily disputed, but you may see other, non-specific charges such...

Caller ID Spoofing Auditel cares about Robocalls, and we care about you! Robocalls are annoying but can be dangerous. With no one there when you answer, 800 number calls offering a lower interest rate on your credit cards, holiday charity scams and especially Medicare scams. These are just a few of the types of scam calls you might have received or will receive, sometimes multiple times per day. They are all designed to steal your personal or banking information or your identity and a great many of them come from outside the U.S. So, what is spoofing? A common ruse is for scammers to “spoof” the number on your caller ID. Your caller ID   might show anything, from the IRS , your banking institution, a number from your area code and prefix to imitate being a local business or anything they can think of to get you to answer your phone. What’s a simple and effective way to prevent these criminals from ripping you off?   Just don’t answer the phone unless it’s fro...

Things to Consider about Telecommunications Taxes Telecommunications taxes typically comprise, 9-13+ percent of your telecom billing total, depending on your location. The telecom taxes are usually calculated and collected by each telecom provider or ServiceProvider (Phone Company). It’s your corporate responsibility to look into your telecom bills. Your business needs to be sure you aren’t being overbilled for any telecommunication taxes . You need to be certain that you are claiming all of your exemptions and not just the common exemptions. You should be receiving all tax exemptions that are available to you. And there are quite a few of them. Non-profit organizations, claiming refunds as part of class action settlement awards, tax exempt inbound calling in some states, tax exempt data usage, Enterprise Zone Exemptions, etc. We work on our competitor’s tax billings and we can work on yours. Understanding 911 fees and FUSF also known as Federal Universal Service Fun...

  A Painless Path to Cost Reduction and Growth Cost reduction isn’t usually thought of as a business growth strategy in the classic sense, but as growth typically involves capital, being able to free up tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars annually is one way to increase or provide a budget for those new plans to come to fruition. That business growth necessarily involves change is particularly true in today’s fast-moving technology environment , no one wants to be playing catch-up rather than leading and across the board improvement is the order of the day and improvement means change. IT Research and Advisory firm Gartner Inc. estimates that the typical organization has undertaken 5 major organization wide changes in the last three years, two thirds of which had at best, mixed results, and half of which were clear failures. Of those businesses, fully 75% see themselves increasing the number of change initiatives in the next three years, so it’s important to en...