AT&T will pay $6.9 million to the Federal Communications Commission for over-billing a program designed to help low-income households pay their phone bills.
An audit of AT&T revealed the carrier inaccurately billed the FCC after failing to remove customers who were no longer eligible for the Lifeline program in 2012 and 2013. The fine is a way for the FCC to collect the money owed to them from the overcharge.
As part of the punishment, AT&T will have to draft plans and instate compliance officers to make sure that the issue doesn’t happen again.
“American consumers trust that the companies [that] receive federal funds will use that money appropriately,” said Travis LeBlanc, chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau. “We expect companies to be vigilant in protecting public funds and complying with FCC rules.”
The FCC also fined former AT&T subsidiary Southern New England Telephone $4 million for the same issue. SNET is now owned by Frontier Communications.
AT&T said the issue was an honest mistake, telling The Verge: “We discovered this issue in the course of an internal review, voluntarily reported it and reimbursed the Universal Service Fund about a year ago. We also have implemented process enhancements so this does not happen again.”
The FCC is currently in the process of overhauling the Lifeline program to give more low-income households access to the Internet in addition to phone service.
