united-states consumer-protection fcc
Are companies allowed to file consumer complaints to the Federal Communications Commission?
<p>Are companies allowed to file consumer complaints to the Federal Communications Commission? May a company complain to the FCC that their business phone provider won't give them the information needed to port a number or they're overcharged for internet?</p>

<p>There is no legal significance to their use of the word &quot;consumer&quot; rather than &quot;customer&quot; or &quot;purchaser&quot;, and nothing on <a href="https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us" rel="nofollow noreferrer">their website</a> suggests a limit on who can file a complaint. Indeed, the <a href="https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/article_attachments/360090262251/complaint_form.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">complaint form</a> asks for &quot;Company Name (if applicable)&quot;. There are no subject-matter restrictions on complaints though it is pointless to complain about something that isn't about a violation of FCC regulations. It <em>is</em> pointless to complain about internet service rates, because the FCC does not regulate those rates. I cannot determine if there is any FCC requirement that a provider must tell you how to port your number from one provider to another. However, you could file a complains, which the provider must reply to, and they would tell you something like &quot;We don't provide that information&quot;. You could then escalate the matter to the status of a formal complaint (which costs money), and eventually you might get a full formal explanation that they are not required to tell you how to do it (unless they <em>are</em> required to, then they presumably will have told you before you got to this stage). The <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/porting-keeping-your-phone-number-when-you-change-providers" rel="nofollow noreferrer">FCC guide on porting numbers</a> does not indicate whether the provider has to explain to you how to do it, but their guide is a good starting point.</p>
