PICC (Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier Charge) is a charge that United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states, one federal district, and fourteen territories. The country is situated almost entirely in the western hemisphere: its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie in central North America between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico ...United States long distanceLong distance in telecommunications, refers to telephone calls made outside a certain area, usually characterized by an area code outside of a local call area. Long-distance calls usually carry long-distance charges which, within certain nations, vary between phone companies and are the subject of much competition. International calls are calls made between different countries, and usually carry much higher charges. These calls are charged to the calling party unless the called party accepts a collect call.long distance telephone companies pay to incumbent local exchange carrierILEC, short for incumbent local exchange carrier, is a local telephone company in the United States that was in existence at the time of the break up of AT&T into the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) also known as the "Baby Bells". GTE was the second largest ILEC after the Bells, but it has since been absorbed into Verizon, an RBOC. ILECs compete with upstart Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLEC).incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) to help recover local loopIn telephony, the local loop (also referred to as a subscriber line) is the physical link or circuit, that connects from the demarcation point of the customer premises to the edge of the carrier, or telecommunications service provider, network. At the ...local loop costs.
Local companies charge long-distance providers to connect callers to their network. Every time a long-distance call is made, it must first be routed by the local phone company. In the past, the charge for this routing was billed based on the length of the call. In reality, however, the cost of local access depends more on the number of phone lines. As a consequence, the FCCThe Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a United States government agency, created, directed, and empowered by Congressional statute (see and ), and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current president. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934 as the successor to the Federal Radio Commission and is charged ...FCC ordered local access charges be billed on a per-line basis and per minute fees be decreased. This is the origin of the PICC.
These charges usually show up monthly on long distance bills. The FCC allows long-distance companies to charge it but limits how much they charge. The money is supposed to be remitted by the long distance company to the local phone company. This is a per-line access charge imposed on businesses that have more than one business telephone line in their premises. PICC charges should never be charged on residential service.
PICC charges are also referred to as the "Carrier Line Charge".
