Comcast Asks Court To Dismiss 911 Charges Complaint
Comcast urged a federal district court to dismiss a complaint by two Georgia counties on a dispute about collection of 911 charges. The counties of Cobb and Gwinnett filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta, alleging Comcast…
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failed to bill, collect, report and remit the appropriate amount of 911 charges from customers. The counties seek to collect the charges from Comcast. But in a motion to dismiss filed Friday, Comcast said it didn't underbill 911 charges -- and in any case, the counties don't have authority to hold telecom providers liable for unpaid 911 changes. The governing law in the state, the 1977 Georgia Emergency Telephone Number 9-1-1 Service Act (911 Act), doesn't authorize the counties to collect 911 charges from telcos, Comcast argued. “The 911 Act does not create a right of action against service suppliers for unpaid 911 charges and most certainly does not enable an action against suppliers to collect from them 911 charges that have not been billed,” it said. “The Counties ask this Court to manufacture from wholecloth [sic] a right of action that does not exist under the 911 Act and a remedy that the 911 Act does not allow. The law is clear that their complaint must be dismissed.” The counties’ 911 complaint is one of a spate of lawsuits lately facing telecom providers, said Comcast. “This lawsuit is one of over a dozen lawsuits filed by Cobb and Gwinnett Counties. It also mirrors more than a dozen other, similar lawsuits filed by or on behalf of local governments across the nation.” Comcast said the source of all the complaints is consulting firm Expert Discovery, which “presents itself as an ‘auditor’ of telephone service providers and works on a contingent fee basis.” Expert Discovery didn’t comment.