FCC TO INVESTIGATE MCI FRAUD ALLEGATIONS, TAUZIN SEEKS DATA
An FCC spokesman confirmed Wed. that the agency planned to investigate allegations that MCI had engaged in access charge fraud (CD July 29 p1). The spokesman wouldn’t elaborate other than to say the Commission would share the results of its Enforcement Bureau investigation with the House Commerce Committee. The Committee sent a letter to the FCC Wed. asking whether the agency planned to investigate the allegations “and enforce the FCC’s rules.”
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The letter, signed by Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.), also asked the FCC to submit by Aug. 13 any documents it had on violations of access charge rules by MCI. In response, the FCC issued a statement saying it “of course will cooperate fully with the Committee including sharing with the Committee the results of our investigation.” An MCI spokeswoman said “we can’t speak to Chairman Tauzin’s request to the FCC, however, as the expert agency, it would be normal for the FCC to review such matters and we stand ready to cooperate in every way.”
Tauzin requested information from the FCC on the steps it would take to investigate the allegations that MCI had avoided paying access charges by disguising the origin of telephone calls. “If true, these allegations represent an unprecedented violation of Federal Communications Commission rules,” the letter said. Tauzin asked for any agency documentation on actual or alleged violation of access charge rules by MCI. He asked the FCC to provide that documentation by Aug. 13. Tauzin spokesman Ken Johnson said there would be a hearing on the MCI charges specifically, and access charges in general, when the House returned in Sept. Information gathered from the inquiry could be used in the hearing, Johnson said.
The letter said without the origination and termination of interexchange traffic, long distance calls never would be connected. “Thus, a gross violation of regulations governing the origination and termination of long distance calls undermines the basic telecom system of the United States,” the letter said. In the letter, Tauzin and Upton said they were particularly troubled by the allegation that involved avoidance of intrastate access charges. “It is our understanding that, last year, MCI initiated an ‘in-state access recovery fee’ on the telephone bills of residential consumers,” the letter said: “As a result, MCI may have been charging consumers fees for intrastate access charges that MCI was, in fact, circumventing.”
The lawmakers said they also wanted to know the FCC’s history of investigating access charge allegations and how the FCC remedied such rule violations. “If the allegations are true, how could this scheme have gone unnoticed for such a long time?” Johnson asked.