Dispute Over Jurisdictionality of Mobile to Landline Calls

When the Brandenburg Telephone Company needed Sprint to pay its access charges, it turned to Dinsmore. Sprint had been withholding millions of dollars in access charges billed to it pursuant to Brandenburg Telephone Company’s filed and approved tariffs. Sprint claimed that although the tariff language jurisdictionalized access traffic as inter/intrastate on the basis of a juxtaposition of the called and calling party numbers, the advent of wireless telecommunications required jurisdictionalization based on the location of the wireless switch handling the traffic. Before the Franklin Circuit Court, Dinsmore successfully argued that the plain language and historical application of Brandenburg Telephone Company’s tariff prevailed. As the Franklin Circuit Court agreed in reversing the Commission, any other outcome would have resulted in an impermissible violation of Brandenburg Telephone Company’s constitutional due process rights. As a result of the reversal, the client will be able to recover a substantial amount of unpaid charges, and it establishes an important precedent for other wireline carriers across the Commonwealth.