FCC Proposes $100,000 Fines Against Amp'd Mobile, Other Cos."
WASHINGTON (AP)--The Federal Communications Commission is proposing a $100,000 fine against Amp'd Mobile, the wireless phone company aimed at the youth market, and two other companies for failing to protect consumers' personal calling records from thieves.
The FCC has proposed such fines against at least three other U.S. companies since January 2006 for failing to comply with rules requiring that consumer phone records be protected by internal safeguards. The FCC promised "aggressive, substantial steps" to crack down on phone companies that fail to protect such records.
Amp'd Mobile assured the FCC in a letter in February that its internal procedures protect customer phone records but did not specify those procedures.
The FCC also proposed $100,000 fines against Easterbrooke Cellular of Larkspur, Calif., and against CTC Communications of Waltham, Mass., now part of One Communications.
The FCC said CTC Communications could not offer assurances that three companies it acquired in 2005 used internal procedures to protect consumer phone records. The FCC said Easterbrooke acknowledged in a December letter it did not keep written records for the past five years guaranteeing its customer records were protected.
The proposed fines, announced Tuesday, come in the wake of disclosures that detectives hired by Hewlett-Packard - and a myriad of other so-called data brokers - routinely acquire personal phone records by impersonating customers targeted in private investigations and billing collection cases.
Congress formally outlawed the practice, known as "pretexting," earlier this year.
"Consumers are increasingly concerned about the security of their sensitive, personal data that they must entrust to their various service providers, whether they are financial institutions or telephone companies," the FCC said.
The FCC also proposed $100,000 fines in January 2006 against Cbeyond Communications, AT&T and Alltel of Little Rock, Ark. AT&T made a $550,000 payment in July to settle related FCC complaints. Alltel paid $100,000 to the FCC in August.
The FCC gave Amp'd Mobile, CTC Communications and Easterbrooke Cellular 30 days to provide more information to avoid the $100,000 fine or request a lower fine. Amp'd annual sales are estimated to be about $5.1 million.
Amp'd Mobile is a national wireless provider aimed at the youth market and offers games, music and videos that can be downloaded onto its cellular phones.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires "
Posted to the site on 28th March 2007