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That challenge wasn't meant to preserve the ability of Verizon Pennsylvania, the Verizon brand that provides FiOS products and broadband and phone service to residential and small business customers, to charge a fee because it doesn't charge them now and doesn't intend to, Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski told me.Rather, he said, like <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Michael-Kors-Diamond-Watches>Michael Kors Diamond Watches</a> Cavalier, Verizon is standing up to an attempt by the PUC to overstep its authority to impose broad and unnecessary regulations. He said these arbitrary regulations would apply only to a small segment of communications companies that are subject to PUC regulations, while unregulated wireless, cable and Internet-based telephone providers are free to implement paper and paperless billing programs based on market demands.That gives those companies an unfair advantage, Gierczynski said.Cavalier and Verizon say state regulations don't require a paper bill to be sent to customers, and say only that customers are entitled to a monthly bill without specifying how it's delivered.The PUC believes the cost of paper bills should be part of normal service rates and not collected with a separate charge, spokeswoman Robin Tilley told me. We believe that utilities have the statutory obligation to provide a monthly bill that is an integral part of providing telecommunications services and is necessary for uninterrupted telecommunications services, the commission said in its July 24 order. The monthly bill provides the customer's rates for corresponding services, and without a monthly bill the customer will not know what to pay. Moreover, the monthly bill is an important tool to prevent telecommunications fraud. Cavalier serves primarily businesses. It offers them free electronic copies of their bills but charges businesses a fee if they want a paper copy, Windstream spokesman Scott Morris said. Cavalier also has about 5,000 residential customers who receive free paper bills, and there are no plans to charge them for sending those bills, he said.In its failed to the PUC, Verizon had argued that paper telephone bills are increasingly becoming a relic of the <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Louboutin-Simple-100>Discount Christian Louboutin</a> past, just like pay phones, white page phone books and rotary dial phones. Today's environmentally savvy consumers expect a paperless billing choice, which is not surprising since eliminating archaic paper bills has enormous consumer and societal benefits, Verizon attorney Suzan Paiva wrote.The PUC doesn't disagree. It says paperless or online billing is just fine, but must be offered on a voluntary basis and free of any condition, such as to avoid a charge. It says a fee to receive a paper bill would penalize customers who want paper bills or don't have adequate Internet access to view an electronic version.According to PUC records, 24 of 134 phone companies that were surveyed in 2010 said they charged a paper billing fee to residential customers, business customers or both. The agency wasn't able to provide me with a list of those companies.The fees at the time of the survey ranged from $1.95 to $3.89 a month for residential customers and $1.95 to $30 a month for business customers, depending on the number of pages in their bills, according to the PUC records.Tilley told me last month that the PUC's independent Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement intended to investigate companies charging the fees, which could result in their being subject to fines or having to refund customers.That was before Cavalier's appeal, though, and I doubt that would occur until the appeal is heard.The agency's July order pertains <a href=http://www.alportico.net/page.php?sale=True-Religion-Sizing-Chart>True Religion Sizing Chart</a> only to phone companies and not other industries that fall under the PUC's jurisdiction, such as gas and electric utilities. The PUC isn't aware of any electric or gas companies that charge a billing fee, Tilley said.The Watchdog is published Thursdays and Sundays. Contact me at , 610-841-2364 or The Morning Call, 101 N. Sixth St., Allentown, PA, 18101. I'm on Twitter @mcwatchdog and Facebook at Morning Call Watchdog. Copyright 2014,