(Bloomberg) -- The Federal Communications Commission announced a $40 million settlement with T-Mobile US Inc. over accusations the carrier made it seem that outgoing calls were ringing at their destination when they weren't.
T-Mobile admitted that it violated a prohibition against inserting false ringing sounds, and that it didn't correct problems, the FCC said Monday in an emailed news release. T-Mobile reported that it had injected the false ringing sounds on hundreds of millions of calls, the FCC said.
T-Mobile, of Bellevue, Washington, said in an emailed statement that “the ringtone oversight, which was corrected in January 2017, was unintentional.”
Call-completion problems appeared to be occurring mostly in rural areas served by closely held regional telephone companies, which charge the long-distance carriers such as T-Mobile more than companies in urban and suburban areas, according to the FCC.
With the false ringing sounds, the calling party believes the phone is ringing at the called party's premises when it is not. As a result, the caller may hang up, thinking nobody is available to receive the call, thus saving T-Mobile fees it would have to pay the local carrier.
Calls that aren't completed cause rural businesses to lose revenue, impede medical professionals from reaching patients in rural areas, cut families off from their relatives, and create the potential for dangerous delays in public safety communications, the FCC said.
T-Mobile, of Bellevue, Washington, said in an emailed statement that “the ringtone oversight, which was corrected in January 2017, was unintentional.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
