Bill Shock Ahead – Verizon’s Legacy Voice Rate Surge

Bill Shock Ahead – Verizon’s Legacy Voice Rate Surge

Tony
Hello today is Wednesday, September 10, 2025, I’m Tony Mangino from TC2 and this is Staying Connected.

In late August, we did a podcast on Verizon’s notice sunsetting certain legacy voice services.  I’m joined today by my colleague Theresa Knutson for a timely and important update to the Verizon notice.  Theresa, welcome back.  Let’s jump right in.

Theresa:

This summer Verizon sent out notifications to its customers that it was sunsetting certain legacy voice services such as TDM voice, related voice routing features and legacy local services (ISDN PRIs, T1s, PBXs) effective 11/1/2025. You should have received this notice from your account team.   Verizon also included this sunset notice in the opening pages of its invoices and also it is highlighted in the front banner when you sign into Verizon’s Enterprise Center (VEC) portal.  

Tony:

So we are back today just 2 weeks after our podcast on this topic—what’s bringing us back to the table today?

Theresa:

It’s because these anticipated rate increases hit your August invoices if you are on a mid-month billing cycle or are hitting your September invoices now if you have a beginning of the month bill cycle.   It’s happening now and be prepared when you look at these invoices—you will need to be sitting down.

Tony:

Can you share with our listeners what to look out for and how to check if they still have these services in use in their environments?

 Theresa:

Effective August 1, 2025, Verizon Business has instituted a 200% price increase for customers who subscribe to Integrated Services Digital Network – Primary Rate Interface (ISDN PRI) and Full T1 services.

That’s right—200%. This is not a minor adjustment. It reflects Verizon’s ongoing effort to retire older technologies and shift customers toward newer, more modern voice solutions.

I suggest running a current charges report in the VEC portal for the period June to September 2025.  Run a pivot table by account by month and look for accounts that had significant increases in September.   They will stick out like a sore thumb!  To make matters worse, Verizon billed you for this rate increase retroactively!   For customers with mid-month billing, this backbilling happened the August invoices;  For customers with beginning of the month billing, this backbilling is happening on your September invoices. 

Tony:

These rate increases are also magnified of course by the layered impact of the federal universal service fee and related regulatory surcharges and taxes on these services that often add another 35+% to the cost base of these services.  What should companies do?

Theresa:

If your organization is impacted, Verizon recommends reaching out to:

• Your Verizon account team
• An authorized Verizon partner
• Or by calling 877.297.7816 directly

To avoid further surprises, it’s critical to develop a cohesive migration plan for all legacy Verizon services. 

We highly recommend that orders for new Verizon services be placed as soon as possible. Transitions to new solutions require a minimum of 60 days, with longer timelines for complex network evolutions. 

Tony:

Any other notices from Verizon that the audience should be aware of?

Theresa:

In the VEC portal, Verizon also posted a notice about service disconnections and price increases on Ethernet Dedicated E-Line and universal CPE platform services globally.
These services had a 50% increase May 1 and another 200% increase September 1 and a 400% increase planned for December 1. 

Tony:

What we are seeing here is part of a larger shift away from TDM-based services—technologies like PRI and T1 that formed the backbone of business communications for decades. Verizon, along with other major carriers, is moving aggressively to retire these older platforms in favor of VoIP and cloud-based voice solutions.

This transition is not optional. With rates spiking so dramatically, businesses still on legacy services face massive cost pressure.

Theresa:

The message here is clear: legacy voice services are being retired, and rates will only continue to rise and rise astronomically. If your company is still relying on legacy voice services from any carrier, it’s time to prioritize your transition roadmap.

We’ll continue monitoring these changes and bringing you updates on practical strategies businesses are using to reduce costs while modernizing their communications infrastructure.

Tony:

Thanks Theresa always a pleasure to have you on Staying Connected.

To our listeners, if you would like to learn more about how Verizon’s sunsetting of the TDM platform might impact your business, or if you’d like to discuss other technology strategy, sourcing and cost reduction needs with Theresa, me, or any of our TC2 and LB3 colleagues, please give us a call or shoot us an email. 

You can also stay current by subscribing to Staying Connected, checking out our websites, and following us on LinkedIn.