Report about the FCC's action against Optic Internet Protocol, Inc. for slamming and cramming, and their new net neutrality order.
For March 13, 2015, or can run several days after. newsroom.free103point9.org
On March 11 the Federal Communications Commission fined Optic Internet Protocol, Inc., an Alpharetta, GA telephone company, $7,620,000 for changing consumersâ long distance carriers without their authorization (âslammingâ), placing unauthorized charges for service on consumersâ telephone bills (âcrammingâ), and submitting fabricated audio recordings as âproofâ that consumers had authorized the company to switch their carriers. âConsumers should be able to count on companies not to load their phone bills with phony chargesâ said Travis LeBlanc, Chief of the Enforcement Bureau. âThe FCC will enforce the law to the fullest extent possible to stop companies from taking advantage of consumers by switching their telephone carriers and placing charges on their telephone bills without authorization.â Optic made up its own audio recordings to âproveâ that consumers authorized changes in their services, and then played the bogus recordings for consumers and produced them for law enforcement. The FCC has taken nearly 30 enforcement actions for cramming or slamming in the past five years, with more than $90 million in penalties, and more than $200 million returned to consumers. On March 12, the FCC also announced its net neutrality rules, according to Dominic Rushe in The Guardian. The 313-page document includes, ânew rules [that] ban internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking or âthrottlingâ any legitimate service online. The FCC also outlawed ISPs from creating fast lanes for preferred services â a practice known as âpaid prioritization,'â according to The Guardian story. High-speed internet is now classified as a telecommunications service rather than an information one, allowing the FCC to oversee broadband under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Four million citizens sent in comments about the proposal to the FCC, and President Obama also made a public comment that he was in favor of net neutrality. Republican FCC commissioner Ajit Pai said he did not hear the public comments, only the presidentâs words. âWe are flip-flopping for one reason and one reason alone: president Obama told us to do so,â he said. In a statement, the FCC said, âThe order bars the kinds of tariffing, rate regulation, unbundling requirements and administrative burdens that are the hallmarks of traditional utility regulation. No broadband provider will need to get the FCCâs approval before offering any price, product or plan.â
FCC Rulings
Radio News about radio waves.
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March 13, 2015
Produced at Wave Farm/WGXC in the Hudson Valley, New York.
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