Q: My office is trying to have the PBX number changed at our Washington DC location. Verizon said they need a form filled out before they can review our information and make the change. I am not familiar with the Agreement to Protect CPNI. Is this something new?
A: The FCC adopted new rules to strengthen the protection of phone records in 2007. As a result service providers must take reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to account information, only disclose call detail if the customer provides a password, authenticate access before allowing online access to records, present records in a retail store only if valid identification is provided, and establish passwords and back-up authentication methods and notify customers immediately when changes are made to an account. In addition to the above protections there is a business customer exemption for organizations that have both a dedicated account representative and a contract that addresses CPNI protections. Under the exemption providers can utilize authentication regimens other than those listed above. Your form from Verizon is one manifestation of how the exemption can occur.
Q: One of the users in my organization placed a call to our offices from an airport payphone to report that he’d accidentally left his cellphone on his flight. He told the operator to use our preferred long-distance provider but the charges were much higher than they should have been for a domestic interstate call. When I checked the details for that call, it appeared as if it had been placed from India instead of Houston, where the user had been located at the time. Is this a known scam?
A: When you place a long-distance call from a public phone it may be routed to a distant call center before being handed off to your preferred long-distance company. That company might then either unintentionally or intentionally bill as if the call originated from the distant call center rather than from the actual location. As a result you may be charged higher rates. This is call splashing and may be in violation of FCC rules. Be aware, however, that if the user consented or requested to be transferred to the operator for your long-distance provider and was informed that the call might be billed as if it originated somewhere other than his location, the telephone company is permitted to base the resultant charges on an artificial point of origin.
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