State officials are slapping a heavy fine on a long-distance company for the practice known as slamming.America’s Tele-Network is being ordered to pay a civil penalty of 516-thousand dollars. The Georgia-based company is also being forbidden from doing further business in Iowa. Rob Hillesland, a spokesman for the Iowa Utilities Board, says slamming is the act of switching a customer’s telephone service provider without the customer’s knowledge or consent. America’s Tele-Network is accused of slamming about three-dozen Iowans, but Hillesland says it’s impossible to tell just how many Iowans were hit total.America’s Tele-Network is already been fined and ordered to quit doing business in Alabama and Kentucky.
