Telephone

Your home phone connects you to family and friends, but it also offers you a critical connection for emergency situations. Many security systems rely on a dedicated phone line to keep your home secure. Add home phone to your True North Broadband service, and save $5 per month!

Local Plan

Long Distance Plans

Combo Plan

Additional Phone Features

Explanation of common telephone bill items

Residential Phone Line

This is the basic local telephone service charge and it includes unlimited local calling. As a fixed rate, the amount does not depend on usage. Like most telephone companies, True North bills this fixed charge in advance for the next month of local service. The amount of this charge is determined by the rules of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

Service Line Charge

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allows, but does not require, local phone companies such as True North to bill customers for some of the costs of connecting your home or business to the local telephone network. It is not a tax or fee charged by the government. The nature of telephone service is that carriers must interconnect so that consumers located across town or across the country may communicate. This charge may be used by the local phone company to maintain its local network of wire, poles, and other telephone equipment such that long distance carriers will have access to the local network. The FCC’s current maximum amount is $6.50 per month for the first or primary residential line, with a somewhat higher charge for each multiple residential line and for multi-line businesses. True North charges $4.99 per month, considerably less than the maximum allowed.

Federal Universal Service Fund (FUSF)

Congress created this mandatory charge for carriers of voice services (phone providers). It requires a contribution of a percentage of our revenues for providing service. The FCC first implemented this fee in 1998 in order to ensure affordable access to telecommunications services to rural and other high-cost areas for low income persons and to help provide internet access for rural health care facilities, schools, and libraries. On your True North bill, the FUSF fee is calculated as a percentage of the Service Line Charge. The current FUSF rate is  25%. For True North subscribers, that translates to $1.25.

911, Tele-Relay & Telephone Assistance Plan Surcharges

These are mandatory fees that local telephone companies must collect from all telephone service subscribers. The state distributes the monies collected to agencies that operate the following services:

• Minnesota Telephone Relay Service. This communications service transmits and translates calls made between deaf, speech impaired, hard-of-hearing and other persons with the assistance of relay equipment and, at times, trained operators.
• 911 System. The Legislature created the state’s emergency 911 response system, and the 911 surcharge helps maintain the 911 emergency network through Minnesota.
• Telephone Assistance Plan. The surcharge helps offset the cost of basic telephone service for low-income and disabled Minnesotans.

If you have questions about any charges on your True North Broadband bill please call our office and we will be happy to explain your bill.

Local: 218-663-9030

Toll free: 877-602-7769

Minnesota Telephone Assistance Plan

You may be eligible for assistance in paying your telephone bill if you receive benefits from certain low-income assistance programs. To see if you are eligible, please click here. See the link below to fill out an application.

TAP Application

Minnesota’s Telephone Assistance Plan (TAP) offers a monthly credit on your landline telephone service. You may receive the TAP credit on one landline per household.

The telephone service must be in your name. You must show proof that you or a member of your household participates in at least one of the qualifying programs or is income eligible.