Telecom industry may see over $12 million in fines

The FCC has proposed more than $12 million in fines for the telecommunications industry, after hundreds of carriers failed to certify that they are instituting proper protections of customer data.

The carriers either failed to file or incorrectly filed documents to the Federal Communications Commission that would confirm they had implemented a plan to protect customers' proprietary network information. In the notices the FCC sent to the more than 600 carriers that completely failed to file the paperwork, the agency proposed a fine of $20,000 for each carrier. For the carriers that filed noncompliant documentation, the FCC proposed a range of fines up to $10,000.

"I have long stressed the importance of protecting the sensitive information that telecommunications carriers collect about their customers," acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps said in a statement Tuesday. "The broad nature of this enforcement action hopefully will ensure substantial compliance with our rules going forward as the commission continues to make consumer privacy protection a top priority."

The FCC strengthened its privacy rules in 2007 by adopting additional safeguards, including carrier certification, to protect consumer data against unauthorized access and disclosure. The rules apply to all telecommunications providers and interconnected Voice over IP providers.

The carriers will have an opportunity to show that the fines are inapplicable or to appeal for reduced fines if they are unable to pay the full penalty.

[umbrae]

Would be nice to have a list of those Telecos so we can avoid them...

[Warhaven]

Good. And then they should find them again for taking that $44 billion back in 1996 and not upgrading our broadband infrastructure. We should have had fiber, or ethernet if they had listened to Cisco, running throughout California by 2000. But, like every other major corporation given a huge irresponsible sum of money from the government, they took the money and ran without any sort of repercussion.

I think I'll go declare myself a bank like American Express and get in on some of the federal stimulus money, even though I don't really need it.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Fining companies like this means nothing to the telcos. They simply pass the fine on to customers as yet another fee. And better yet, they can keep the fee going long after the fine has been paid for, which results in even more profitability.

Fines end up *helping* the telcos in such cases.

[Cliffro]

I wonder if this is why when I've setup a landline twice in recent history, once with AT&T and just recently with TimeWarner, That I get phone calls within days of activation from Salespeople asking for me specifically.

[carlnunes]

$20,000 fine is nothing to a telecoms. It's just going to raise the price of customer data/information; which is more valuable then ever.

Customers will see higher requirements for personal data when signing up for services; as this additional information will help the telecoms bottom line when selling customer data/information.

[Tech-Guy]

This is interesting that the FCC is fining telecom's for customer data privacy, when there was no problem at all when AT&T was giving **ALL** customer data to the government. Oh well, 'tis life I suppose.

[whosyadaddy?]

gripe.....gripe....gripe..... get a life people.

[mathcreative]

whos why do you think we are here? We don't complain about the problems that are out their. No body know they exist.. Plus I thought all the comments above were well warranted. If you don't believe so, then tell them why with facts. Instead of just denouncing them as complainers.

[kerryvan12]

These are not the big "telco" companies. Most of these 600 companies are small businesses that were not even aware they were required to file this certification. They are not being fined for violating privacy rules. They are being fined for not filing or filing late a compliance statement they did not know they were required to file. My company filed the statement as soon as we became aware we were required to file. We are a small reseller of long distance services. We service a local community. We protect our customer privacy and don't sell our customer information. This $20,000 fine will put us out of business. The same federal government giving out billions to major companies in this bailout will put about 600 small businesses out of business by assessing a $20,000 fine for late paper work.

[RBTBABB]

kerryvan12
I too am part of the 600. I am a local reseller, we offer pre-paid home phone service. Our company is servicing about 200 accounts. Our company does not offer long distance. I am very frustrated, scared and need some advice.
Perhaps we should talk.