Texas-Based Telecom Provider To Pay $875,000 To Resolve Rural Call Completion Investigation

Matrix Telecom, a telecommunications company headquartered in Irving, Texas, will pay $875,000 to resolve an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau into whether the company failed to complete long-distance calls to rural areas on a just, reasonable, and non-discriminatory basis.

Matrix will also implement a three-year plan to ensure compliance with FCC requirements designed to combat the serious problem of long-distance calls failing to complete in rural areas.

“Our nation’s telecommunications laws are based on the fundamental promise that all Americans should be able to call each other wherever they may be located,” said Travis LeBlanc, Acting Chief of the Enforcement Bureau. “Rural America should not be treated differently, and we will continue to enforce the law to fulfill this promise.”

In its consent decree with the Enforcement Bureau, Matrix has agreed to:

• Make a payment of $875,000 to the US Treasury;
• Develop and implement a comprehensive compliance plan designed, among other things, to ensure future compliance with applicable laws;
• Designate a senior corporate manager to serve as a compliance officer focusing on rural call completion issues;
• Cooperate with the FCC and rural local exchange carriers to establish a testing program to evaluate rural call completion performance whenever complaints or data indicate problems;
• Notify intermediate providers (companies that Matrix uses to deliver calls) that may be causing call completion problems and analyze and resolve such problems as soon as practicable;
• Cease using intermediate providers that fail to improve their performance;
• Report to the FCC any noncompliance with the consent decree within 15 days; and
• File an initial compliance report in 90 days and annual reports for three years.