Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
CHAIRWOMAN JESSICA ROSENWORCEL

Re: 	Iowa Network Access Division Tariff F.C.C. No. 1, Order, WC Docket No. 18-60 
(February 18, 2022).

Our communications networks are complex.  The connections required to complete every call require that every provider involved follows the law and obeys the rules.      
Here we have a provider—Aureon—that aggregates traffic from small local carriers in Iowa and connects their calls to other networks.  To do so, Aureon charges its customers a tariffed rate.  The law requires that these rates are “just and reasonable.”  But in decisions in 2018 and 2019, the FCC found that Aureon’s tariffed rate missed this statutory mark and overcharged its customers.  To bring this matter to a close, today we require Aureon to file cost data so that FCC staff can calculate the refunds owed to its customers.  To be clear, when this kind of thing happens, carriers typically voluntarily file a refund plan.  Aureon did not.  So today we exercise our authority to compel them to do so.  
This is one provider offering services in one state.  But the message we send here is broader—if you fail to follow the law and do not refund your customers what they are owed, we will act.  
For their work on this matter, I’d like to thank Lynne Engledow, Justin Faulb, Christopher Koves, Lee McFarland, Kris Monteith, Zach Ross, and Gil Strobel of the Wireline Competition Bureau; Eugene Kiselev, Richard Kwiatkowski, and Eric Ralph of the Office of Economics and Analytics; Anthony DeLaurentis, Lisa Griffin, and Rosemary McEnery of the Enforcement Bureau; and Malena Barzilai, Michele Ellison, Rick Mallen, Linda Oliver, Bill Richardson, and William Scher of the Office of General Counsel.
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