FCC Commissioner Michael Copps has called for the Federal Communications Commission to start an inquiry into whether telephone companies acted legally by allegedly handing over millions of records to the government.

"We need to be certain that the companies over which the FCC has public interest oversight have not gone – or been asked to go – to a place where they should not be," Copps said in a statement issued on May 15th.

USA Today reported on Thursday, May 11th, that AT&T, BellSouth, and Verizon have been providing the National Security Agency with the customer telephone records of tens of millions of Americans. Today BellSouth denied that it gave phone data to the government.

Copps called for the FCC to initiate an investigation into whether these alleged transactions violated Section 222 of the Communications Act. The law states that telecommunications companies must "protect the confidentiality of proprietary information of, and relating to, other telecommunication carriers, equipment manufacturers, and customers."