AT&T overcharged schools $1M and lied about it, FCC and lawsuit says

May 16, 2018

The Orange County school district has filed a new lawsuit against AT&T over a 2016 allegation that the telecom giant overcharged the district by at least $1 million, while still collecting funds from a nonprofit that were supposed to benefit the schools with a lower rate.

The Federal Communication Commission determined that AT&T overcharged Florida schools in Orange County and Dixie County in a preliminary finding, saying that the schools were entitled to a lower rate under the E-Rate program. AT&T denied the allegations and complained in a blog that the FCC was making new policy by “fiat” rather than by front-end changes in regulations.​

AT&T’s Joan Marsh, executive VP of regulatory and state external affairs, wrote in the blog that Orange and Dixie schools “specifically chose not to purchase” annual contracts through the E-Rate program, preferring instead more flexible month-to-month service contracts that were not part of it.

But AT&T didn’t address the allegations that it was collecting money from the nonprofit to offset the district’s rate and not passing that savings along to the schools.

Read more at Orlando Sentinel

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