FCC proposes $6.5 million in fines for disclosure violations

The Federal Communications Commission released two Notices of Apparent Liability Sept. 23, proposing a total of $6,560,000 in fines against two operator service providers: One Call Communications Inc. dba Opticom and ASC Telecom Inc.

Both companies were cited for apparently engaging in egregious and widespread violations of the Communications Act and related FCC rules governing consumer disclosure requirements for operator-assisted calls made from payphones.

The Commission proposed a $5,120,000 fine for Opticom's 64 apparent violations and a $1,440,000 fine for ASC's 18 apparent violations. If ultimately imposed, these would be the highest fines for operator service violations imposed by the FCC.

The FCC calculated the proposed forfeitures by using the $80,000 per violation amount previously used in cases involving egregious slamming.

The proposed fines result from an investigation by the FCC's Enforcement Bureau initiated this spring. The investigation, conducted at payphone locations heavily used by consumers and travelers in the Washington, D.C., area, revealed apparent widespread violation of the FCC's rules requiring that firms identify themselves by their company name, and make their rates available. These violations appear to be part of a deliberate scheme to take advantage of consumers' dialing errors by involving access numbers that are similar to nationally advertised access numbers.

For example, consumers mistakenly dialing 1-800-COOLECT instead of 1-800-COLLECT (so-called "fat finger dialing") would be connected to Opticom rather than their desired carrier. Because Opticom did not identify itself, as required by the rules, the uninformed consumers inadvertently used Opticom's services and received bills with very high per minute rates.

ASC is a subsidiary of Sprint Corporation and has its headquarters in Westwood, Kan.

Opticom has its headquarters in Carmel, Ind. ASC and Opticom have 30 days to either pay the fine, or show why it should be reduced or not imposed.