T-Mobile fined $40 million for faking rural call connections

"T-Mobile has agreed to pay a hefty $40 million fine levied by the Federal Communications Commission after an investigation found that the company was playing fake ringing sounds to customers who were calling rural areas, making them believe that their call was going through when in fact the call had never connected," Christian de Looper reports for Digital Trends.

Calls to rural areas can take a few seconds to connect, but T-Mobile was filling those seconds with fake ringtones to make callers believe the call had already connected. The company promised to halt the practice when it was outlawed in 2014, but continued doing it.

The FCC's ruling said the uncompleted calls "cause rural businesses to lose revenue, impede medical professionals from reaching patients in rural areas, cut families off from their relatives, and create the potential for dangerous delays in public safety communications," de Looper reports.

In addition to the fine, T-Mobile must end the practice within 90 days and issue annual compliance reports to the FCC for the next three years.