Businesses tired of waiting for refund

I just read about Nicor overcharging rate payers and agreeing to refund $64 million, maybe more. I am one of dozens of small Illinois businesses, and hundreds more across the country, who have been trying for 15 years to get millions of dollars of overcharges refunded by the phone company. We filed a docket at the FCC over eight years ago in an effort to get the federal agency to follow its own rules and the ’96 Telecom Act and require AT&T to pay back the millions they overcharges these small businesses. To no avail.

Our docket, No. 96-128, simply asks the FCC to require AT&T to refund the overcharges. AT&T does not dispute the claim but won’t do anything it isn’t forced to do. We wrote to every congressman and were ignored. We wrote to every senator and were ignored. We wrote to every media outlet and were ignored. Is it fair that one group of rate payers gets their overcharges refunded and another does not? Is it fair that the FCC routinely rules on dockets that were filed after 96-128? To be fair I say “first in, first out.”

Congressman Greg Walden of Oregon said there should be a “shot clock” on FCC dockets to avoid lengthy delays in rulings. On Nov. 7 at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski indeed echoed Congressman Walden by saying that a “shot clock” should be used to speed up rulings at the FCC. Wow! Well, Mr. Chairman, bring on the clock! We’re next in line. Rule on CC Docket No. 96-128. It’s our turn. We’ve waited long enough.

Mike Simon

Schaumburg