Blackstone Fined for Failure to Register and Pay Regulatory Fees

Looks like Blackstone has been slapped with a $20,000 fine for failure to register with the FCC and pay the appropriate USF fees. The Bureau is claiming they have made repeated requests of Blackstone to get in line and register but have received no response from Blackstone and no cooperation.

It seems as if Blackstone is just not responding at all since they feel they are not a service provider, just a calling card distributor, so therefore there is no need to file. I am not sure if Blackstone is an actual carrier, but I am sure, like many other prepaid calling card distributors, they have made claims as such to their end users (common practice). So if they want to make the claim, regardless of true or not, they need to pay the piper!

While the $20,000 fine may not look like a lot, the amount was actualy increased significantly from the base fine for this type of infraction due to Blackstone's complete lack of response or cooperation with the Bureau.