If you live in New England, you’ve probably noticed that your local phone company isn’t called Verizon anymore; now it’s FairPoint. And if you haven’t already, then soon you will likely receive new FairPoint calling cards.

But calling cards issued by your local phone company have a serious problem.

After a two-year hiatus, Phone Watch will return this month with regular updates on the telecommunications industry.

Customers of AT&T local telephone service in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware will see a new line item on their bills beginning after March 26, the “local connectivity charge” of $2.75 per month, or $3.50 for New Jersey customers.

Verizon is offering its landline phone subscribers a free 90-day trial of its iobi Home service along with a chance to win up to $100,000 in its iobi Home Sweepstakes.

The merger between Verizon Communications Inc. and MCI, Inc. closed Friday, creating a new company with approximately $90 billion in annual revenues and 250,000 employees in some 150 countries.

The state of Washington approved the Verizon-MCI merger last week, clearing the final regulatory hurdle for the companies.

In a unanimous decision, the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday voted to remove rate restrictions from most of Verizon’s residential services in the state.

Call Block, also known as Call Screening or sometimes Call Rejection, allows you to block incoming calls from specific telephone numbers.

Back in 1898, Congress passed a levy of one cent per telephone call to help raise money to fund the Spanish-American War. The tax, while temporary, has been on-again, off-again throughout the years, and was reinstated in 1990. Now it is three percent (3%) of your overall telephone bill. And some people are refusing to pay it.

The California Public Utilities Commission on Friday approved the mergers of SBC with AT&T and Verizon with MCI, with few conditions placed on the mergers.