ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 24, 1996 TAG: 9601240039
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
FCC wants fines for 'slamming'
WASHINGTON - Federal regulators Tuesday proposed the first fines against the two biggest long distance companies - AT&T and MCI - for signing up customers without their permission.
The action is part of a broad crackdown by the Federal Communications Commission on an illegal practice called ``slamming.'' Three other companies were also fined.
The FCC issued notices to Nationwide Long Distance Inc., Home Owners Long Distance Inc. and MCI for fines totaling $80,000 each. AT&T and Target Telecom Inc. were told to expect $40,000 fines.
Though the fines are tiny compared with the billions in revenue generated by AT&T and MCI, they are a sign that slamming is not confined to small, relatively unknown phone companies eager for business.
Both AT&T and MCI said they would investigate the FCC's complaints. AT&T said if the FCC's facts are correct it would pay the fine.
- Associated Press
Blizzard created an ATM storm
RESTON, Va. - The MOST banking network reported an all-time high for single-day transactions Jan. 6, the day before the blizzard hit the East Coast.
In that 24-hour period, nearly 750,000 automatic-teller machine and point-of-sale transactions were processed. Point-of-sale transactions, in which consumers pay for purchases with MOST cards, were largely responsible for the record.
A spokesman for Reston-based Internet Inc., which operates the MOST system, said the highest level of transactions traditionally is seen the day before Thanksgiving. The Jan. 6 record of 284,000 point-of-sale transactions beat the previous record by more than 12 percent.
MOST provides automatic-teller services for more than 550 financial institutions and 19 million cardholders.
- Associated Press
NS dividend up 7.7 percent
Norfolk Southern Corp. on Tuesday declared a 7.7 percent increase in its regular quarterly dividend, from 52 cents per share to 56 cents on its common stock, payable March 11 to stockholders of Feb. 2.
Also, the company said its board authorized a new program for acquisition of 30 million shares of NS common stock, expected by the end of 2000.
Through the end of 1995, NS had purchased approximately 63.9 million shares of its stock at a cost of approximately $2.9 billion. Purchases will continue to be made in regular brokerage transactions on the open market at prevailing market prices.
- Staff report
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB