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 NEWS  Federal  Communications  Commission  445  12  th  Street,  S.  W.  Washington,  D.  C.  20554  This  is  an  unofficial  announcement  of  Commission  action.  Release  of  the  full  text  of  a  Commission  order  constitutes  official  action.  See  MCI  v.  FCC.  515  F  2d  385  (D.  C.  Circ  1974).  News  Media  Information  202  /  418-  0500  Internet:  http://  www.  fcc.  gov  TTY:  1-  888-  835-  5322 
 FOR  IMMEDIATE  RELEASE  NEWS  MEDIA  CONTACT:  September  23,  2002  John  Winston  (202)  418-  7450 
 jwinston@  fcc.  gov 


 FCC  PROPOSES  OVER  $6.5  MILLION  IN  TOTAL  FINES  AGAINST  TWO  CARRIERS  FOR  VIOLATIONS  OF  CONSUMER  DISCLOSURE  REQUIREMENTS 


 Washington,  D.  C.  -  Today  the  Federal  Communications  Commission  (Commission)  released  two  Notices  of  Apparent  Liability  proposing  a  total  of  $6,560,000  in  fines  against  two  operator 
 service  providers  (OSPs),  One  Call  Communications,  Inc.  d/  b/  a  Opticom  (Opticom)  and  ASC  Telecom,  Inc.  (ASC).  Both  companies  were  cited  for  apparently  engaging  in  egregious  and 
 widespread  violations  of  the  Communications  Act  and  related  Commission  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  Commission.  The  Commission  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  Commission’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  Commission’s  rules  requiring  that  OSPs  identify  themselves  by  their  company  name 
 (“  branding”)  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,  consumer’s  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. 


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 ASC  is  a  subsidiary  of  Sprint  Corporation  and  is  headquartered  in  Westwood,  Kansas.  Opticom  is  headquartered  in  Carmel,  Indiana.  ASC  and  Opticom  have  30  days  to  either  pay  the  fine,  or 
 show  why  it  should  be  reduced  or  not  imposed. 


 Action  by  the  Commission,  September  17,  2002,  by  Notices  of  Apparent  Liability  (FCC  02-  258  and  FCC  02-  259).  Chairman  Powell;  Commissioners  Abernathy,  Copps  and  Martin. 


 File  Nos.  EB-  02-  TC-  003  and  EB-  02-  136 
 Enforcement  Bureau  Contacts:  John  Winston  at  (202)  418-  7450  or  Kurt  Schroeder  at  (202)  418-  0966. 


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