Ecuador’s president claims US-based telephone companies owe millions in fees, orders audit

Ecuador’s Correa says AT&T, Sprint, MCI owe fees

QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador’s leftist president on Saturday accused U.S.-based telephone companies including AT&T, Sprint and MCI of “swindling” his country out of millions of dollars in long-distance fees that he claims they owe.

President Rafael Correa said the companies had underreported the number of minutes of international calls they connected to Ecuador, reducing the fees that he said they were required to pay to the government according to the length of each call.

An auditing firm retained by the government is examining call and payment records to determine how much in fees the state may have lost, Correa told his weekly radio show. A preliminary report suggested losses of $100 million, he said.

U.S.-based spokespeople for AT&T and New York-based Verizon, which acquired MCI Inc. in 2006, did not reply to messages seeking comment on Saturday evening and a spokesman for Sprint was unable to comment on Saturday night.

Ecuador’s two state telephone companies, Pacifictel and Andinatel, were last year merged into the National Telecommunications Corporation. Correa on Saturday suggested that “corrupt” former officials at the two companies had facilitated the alleged scam.

According to Correa, the preliminary audit suggests that Dallas, Texas-based AT&T underreported 274 million minutes of calls, costing Ecuador $38 million dollars in missed fees. He claimed that Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint underreported 148 million minutes, costing $23 million while he said MCI underreported 138 million minutes, worth $19 million. He gave no date or time period for the alleged violations.

Spokespeople for Correa did not answer calls seeking clarification about what specific rules would have required the companies to pay Ecuador call-connecting fees. No record could be found of the Global Audi firm he said was conducting the audit, and he did not say when a final report was expected.