You can select the Auto-Recharge option when you purchase or recharge your CellConnect Prepaid account.  By selecting Auto-Recharge, the your credit card on record is charged a recharge amount (selected by you) when the account balance drops below $5.00.  This ensures that you will never run out of funds while making international calls at Startec's low rates!

You can add funds to your CellConnect prepaid account at any time.  You can do so by using our automated phone system, by going to My Account (https://myaccount.startec.com) and selecting "recharge" or by calling customer service.  It is important to remember that if your account balance reaches zero you will no longer be able to make calls using your CellConnect Prepaid service.

The Universal Service Fund (USF) helps provide affordable telecommunications services for low-income customers and customers in rural areas. It also provides discounts on Internet access for eligible schools, libraries and rural health care providers. The USF is collected from telecommunications carriers and administered by the Universal Service Administration Corporation. They are responsible for disbursing the funds according to eligibility criteria established by the FCC.

In May of 1997, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules that mandated that telecommunications carriers pay into a federal program called the Universal Service Fund (USF). Startec and other telecommunications carriers are required by the FCC, to pay a percentage of their revenues for state-to-state and international services into the Universal Service Fund. The FCC sets this percentage on a quarterly basis. In the competitive industry we are in, we cannot afford to absorb the costs associated with the USF that have been imposed by the FCC. Startec is allowed to pass through these charges to customers by charging the 15.3% Universal Service Fund Fee, the percentage set by the FCC.