AT&T/Cingular recently began blocking phone
numbers on its wireless service used by consumers to access free
conference call services, such as those provided by Free Conference
Call.com. The telephone giant has argued that calls to free conference
call services are resulting in millions of dollars in losses to the
company due to re-routing and termination fees, and has sued free
conference call services and local phone companies in Iowa over the
fees.
“AT&T/Cingular should not hold consumers hostage in their billing
dispute with free conference call services. The company is penalizing
their customers for using their phones to access a legal service,” said
Beth McConnell, PennPIRG Director. “If getting out of a cell phone
contract were easy, AT&T/Cingular would never dare take this
anti-consumer step.” McConnell also noted that Cingular offers
competing conference call services for its cellular customers.
AT&T/Cingular is informing customers who complain that the company
made the decision “because of billing issues,” “charges associated with
calling certain numbers,” and because Free Conference Call.com numbers
are “circumventing their billing practices.”
After receiving a tip from a consumer in Illinois who was blocked from
accessing a conference call on his cellular phone, PennPIRG confirmed
the practice with several customer service representatives at
Cingular/AT&T, as well as with customer service at Free Conference
Call.com. PennPIRG also confirmed the blocks by calling several phone
numbers used by Free Conference Call.com on a Cingular cellular phone.
According to PennPIRG’s research, AT&T/Cingular had not yet blocked
all phone numbers as of Tuesday, March 13 th. Customer service
representatives informed consumers that AT&T/Cingular was blocking
new numbers as they learned of them. As far as PennPIRG has been able
to learn, the number-blocking practice began sometime around March 9
th, 2007. The consumer group is unaware of any other cellular phone
carriers engaging in a similar practice, or if the numbers are also
blocked on AT&T’s land line service.
McConnell noted that AT&T’s anti-consumer action in this context
has broad implications. “This is an example of what is at stake in the
fight for Internet freedom -- a corporation’s financial interests
limiting consumer choice and access to legitimate, publicly available
services. AT&T, of course, is one of the companies opposed to
Internet freedom,” said McConnell.
PennPIRG called on AT&T/Cingular to restore service to legitimate
business phone numbers, and called on regulators at the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) to determine if AT&T/Cingular has
violated any laws in blocking phone numbers.
