Telecom Law Monitor

While the rest of the Enforcement Bureau has not yet fully emerged from the FCC transition, the Spectrum Enforcement Division continues to move investigations along. Last month, the division fined several wireless carriers for failing to file hearing aid compatibility reports. Yesterday, the division settled two outage reporting investigations involving wireless carriers. In both cases, the carriers were alleged to have failed to report outages within the 120 minute deadline. One carrier agreed to a "voluntary contribution" of $40,000. The other carrier agreed to a contribution of $50,000, must implement a compliance training program and must file three compliance reports with the FCC. Clearly, the Commission felt that this carrier's degree of non-compliance was greater. A little prevention can make all the difference in these investigations.