Today's mystery. Why are the phone carriers suddenly forcing price hikes on DSL service, hikes they don't even admit to? (The image of a cracked Liberty Bell is from Germany.)

Earthlink pushed one on me a few months ago, a hike of nearly 10% for "sales taxes." The latest phone company ploy is to charge "regulatory fees," another way to blame the government.

But make no mistake. These are price hikes. Government didn't suddenly start raising its charges. The carriers have chosen to start recouping them.

And is that all? No.

We don't know how much the phone carriers are actually being charged for such things as the Universal Service Fee. And that fee usually goes right back to the Bells, because they're favored in the law as the provider of connectivity to the poor and those in rural areas.

The fact is the Bells aren't making money on DSL. In order to compete with cable their basic prices are near cost. And cable often delivers more speed.

Why are costs so high? Wires, incompatible equipment (cable Internet is all done under a single standard, while DSL set-ups vary), big buildings (most city skylines feature at least one big Bell building), executive salaries, labor costs, lobbyists -- the list goes on.

These costs can't be recouped on basic prices. Some cable operators are already starting to eat into phone revenues with VOIP. They can't be recouped on bulk data -- DSL has sent the base price of a T-1 line plummeting.

Blaming the government is the best they can come up with. The hope is that cable operators will follow on these price hikes, and that phone lobbyists can push equivalent costs to them, so they will hike prices.

The hope, with residential gateways, is that phone companies can start charging captive customers for customized services delivered by the gateways (and their back-end software) -- parental controls, VOIP, VPNs. But ABI Research reported last month that European phone companies are now moving toward a retail model for gateways. And the promised "up-sell" services themselves are becoming commodities.

There's one more thing they can try, but they're already spending all their money resisting it. That one thing is wholesaling. Encouraging other ISPs to use their backhaul and their networks, rather than trying to prevent them from accessing their "last mile," could raise their market share without their having to lift a finger.

But that would require reversing a 10-year old lobbying course, so don't hold your breath.