The Oregon Public Utility Commission has received more than 1,600...
The Oregon Public Utility Commission has received more than 1,600 complaints about rural call completion problems since June 2011, it said. The PUC has approved a new set of rules to combat the issue by forbidding anyone holding an intrastate…
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telecommunications certificate “from blocking, choking, reducing or restricting traffic in any way” and from misleading or deceiving, the PUC said Wednesday evening (http://xrl.us/bn7b9q), saying it will fine violators up to $50,000. The PUC is responsible for levying the fines, and the Oregon Department of Justice will go to the circuit court to collect them on behalf of the state, a PUC spokesman said. The problem has continued to come up nationally and in other states, but waiting for “a national solution” is “not acceptable,” said Chair Susan Ackerman in a statement: “The Commission cannot stand by and do nothing while Oregonians continue to experience these problems daily.” Service providers will now be liable for their underlying carriers, the PUC added. Companies must “complete long-distance calls to rural areas with the same accuracy at which they complete to urban areas,” according to the new rules.