In October 1989, MCI and AT&T filed legal claims against each other alleging false and deceptive advertising, and on January 10, 1990, AT&T sued MCI for false and deceptive telemarketing practices; the two companies have now agreed an out-of-court settlement on their respective lawsuits although the terms of the settlement were not disclosed; they are going to propose safeguards to the Federal Communications Commission that should protect consumers against being switched to a long distance carrier without their permission – a practice that’s known as slamming; the proposed safeguards would require that at least one of the following take place before a long distance service is switched; the consumer signs an authorisation card and sends it to the long distance carrier, or secondly, the consumer initiates a call to the local telephone company or the long distance carrier; thirdly, the consumer initiates a call from home to an automated toll-free 800 number, and through a sequence of prompts, confirms the choice of long distance carrier, or finally, choice of a long distance carrier is verified by a firm unaffiliated with a any of the long distance carriers.
