Historically, it would have been. Local phone service was strictly regulated for most of its existence. That's not the case so much these days, partly because so many alternatives exist. But, I'm confident there are still some rural areas where a land line from AT&T is the only reliable means of communication.
To be fair to T, those rural lines are the most expensive they maintain, and they no longer have as many sheep in major metropolitan areas to subsidize the rural phone users (who get those lines for the same price as the densely packed city folk who are super cheap to provide service to). So, I can imagine a valid argument for this additional fee.
But, given the level of evil of AT&T, and their historic abuse of monopoly powers (independent ISPs were destroyed by T a decade ago, for instance), and their apparent ability to get away with it right under the noses of regulators...well, I suspect this is not at all a response to any real cost change at T. I reckon it's just T being the same old T. Abuse of their monopoly, as far as the law allows (and then a little bit extra), is built right into their character.
To be fair to T, those rural lines are the most expensive they maintain, and they no longer have as many sheep in major metropolitan areas to subsidize the rural phone users (who get those lines for the same price as the densely packed city folk who are super cheap to provide service to). So, I can imagine a valid argument for this additional fee.
But, given the level of evil of AT&T, and their historic abuse of monopoly powers (independent ISPs were destroyed by T a decade ago, for instance), and their apparent ability to get away with it right under the noses of regulators...well, I suspect this is not at all a response to any real cost change at T. I reckon it's just T being the same old T. Abuse of their monopoly, as far as the law allows (and then a little bit extra), is built right into their character.