$12 Million Fine Against Cingular Upheld
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The California Public Utilities  Commission on Thursday upheld a $12.1 million fine against  Cingular Wireless, related to a two-year investigation into the  cellular telephone company's business practices.
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Sprint and AT&T will pay nearly $1.5 million in civil penalties to settle government claims that the companies violated federal credit laws for customers seeking telephone service.
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WASHINGTON, Oct 26  - Cingular Wireless Corp. announced Tuesday it had completed a 41-billion-dollar takeover of AT and T Wireless after winning final clearance from US regulators.
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Federal regulators will formally approve Cingular WirelessÂ $41 billion purchase of AT& T Wireless, according to company officials briefed on the matter.
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The Department of Justice has approved Cingular Wireless' &#36;41 billion acquisition of AT&amp;T Wireless Services.
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A federal jury found Qualcomm Inc.   guilty of infringing three patents owned by smaller  rival Broadcom Corp.  and it awarded Broadcom $19.6  million in damages on Tuesday, the companies said.
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The FCC&#39;s wireless telecommunications bureau has recommended clearing Cingular&#39;s buyout of AT&amp;T Wireless with only minimal divestitures from the two companies.
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Cingular Wireless, one of the largest  U.S. mobile phone carriers, on Friday refuted claims in a  lawsuit that it misled and overcharged some customers, and said  it is considering coutersuing.
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The $41 billion merger between Cingular Wireless LLC and AT&amp;T Wireless Services Inc. won approval from the Federal Communications Commission yesterday, according to federal sources close to
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WASHINGTON -- Sprint and AT&amp;T will be paying a total of $1.5 million to settle with federal regulators. The government charges the phone giants failed to inform potential customers of their rights under federal credit law, after they were denied service.
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US prosecutors said Thursday Qwest Communications isn&#39;t off the hook, even though the company agreed to a $250 million civil fine for its addiction to fraudulent accounting.
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NEW YORK - Vonage Holdings Corp., the beleaguered provider of Internet-based phone service, said yesterday it has settled a patent lawsuit brought by Verizon Communications Inc. for a maximum of $120 million.
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A federal jury found Qualcomm Inc.  guilty of infringing three patents owned by smaller rival Broadcom Corp.  and it awarded Broadcom $19.6 million in damages on Tuesday, the companies said.
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Verizon Communications won an appeals court ruling yesterday upholding most of a patent verdict over smaller rival Vonage Holdings, the second legal setback for the Internet phone company in as many days.
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The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement requiring Cingular Wireless Corporation to divest assets in 13 markets in order to proceed with Cingular Wireless&#39;s $41 billion acquisition of AT&amp;T Wireless.
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A judge has approved a $3.75 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit challenging billing practices at AT&amp;T Wireless Services, the Redmond-based company that was acquired last week by Cingular Wireless of Atlanta.
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(InfoWorld) - Washington State's highest court on Thursday let a class-action lawsuit alleging overcharging by Cingular Wireless go forward. The state Supreme Court said a clause in Cingular's contract that prevented subscribers from starting class-action suits was unfair and sent the case back to the trial court in King County where it began. The suit was filed in 2004 on behalf of a small number of Washington customers of Cingular Wireless, now part of AT&T Inc. It said the carrier advertised free roaming in areas covered by AT&T Wireless, which was then a separate company, but hit the customers with roaming charges anyway. It also said customers were improperly charged for long distance on some calls, said Douglas Dunham, an attorney representing the plaintiffs. They alleged Cingular had overcharged customers between $1 and $40 per month. The plaintiffs' attempt to start a class-action suit was blocked by a clause in the Cingular customer contract, which said disgruntled subscribers couldn't form or join classes to sue the carrier. As a result, they didn't even get to the stage of finding out how many customers in Washington or nationally may have been affected, Dunham said. Now that they have won on appeal, the plaintiffs will pursue a class action, he said. AT&T is studying the ruling, spokesman Walt Sharp said. The carrier could appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to F. Paul Bland, staff attorney at Public Justice, a public-interest law firm in Washington, D.C., that helped argue the plaintiffs' case. In cases involving small amounts of money, consumers need to be able to pursue class actions, Bland said. "Cingular was trying to write a contract term that would make it impossible for their customers to vindicate their legal rights ... if Cingular cheated them out of small sums of money," Bland said. "Even though Cingular broke its contract and engaged in a bait-and-switch that netted it millions of dollars, almost no individuals would ever be able to take their claims forward and get justice." The decision will make it harder for other companies, such as credit card issuers, to introduce similar bans on class-action suits in Washington, Dunham predicted. In the Cingular case, it will probably take several months to get the class of plaintiffs certified and to gauge damages, he said. The case might not go to trial for two years, he added.