JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- State regulators want more details about inaccurate information SBC Communications Inc. provided on an application for long distance service in Missouri and three other states that led the company to pay federal regulators $3.6 million.
"I think we'd probably like to know what the information was deemed inaccurate," Kelvin Simmons, chairman of the Public Service Commission, said Wednesday. "We have asked our telecommunications people and general counsel to have a look and see if there are ways to obtain additional information. We don't know right now."
The deal between SBC and the Federal Communications Commission is much like an out-of-court settlement in which details of an investigation are not always made public.
"We know something happened because if nothing happened you don't ordinarily volunteer to pay that kind of money," Simmons said. "We don't know everything that transpired."
In a consent decree released Tuesday, SBC said it would ensure that employees who have contacts with the FCC are "made aware of their obligations to provide truthful, accurate and complete information to the commission."
SBC said the inaccuracies "were the result of good-faith efforts in describing highly technical matters and not the product of any intent to mislead the commission or its staff."
Simmons said that Missouri has little to say in the case because of federal jurisdiction but suggested there may be a tendency among PSC members to be more cautious about SBC-related matters.
"But to say that we'd be harder on them next time, that wouldn't be appropriate either," Simmons said.
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