FCC Announces Payment Of Over $600 Million By Straight Path & Verizon To Satisfy Settlement Terms

The Federal Communications Commission announced that Straight Path Communications and Verizon Communications have paid a civil penalty of over $600 million dollars to the US Treasury in connection with a January 2017 settlement that Straight Path entered into with the Commission’s Enforcement Bureau—prior to the sale and transfer of its licenses to Verizon. This payment is the largest civil penalty ever paid to the US Treasury to resolve a Commission investigation. The settlement resolved an investigation into allegations that Straight Path failed to use the spectrum it was awarded, and thus violated the Commission’s buildout and discontinuance rules in connection with approximately 1,000 licenses in certain millimeter wave spectrum bands. These high frequency bands have been identified by the Commission for use in the next generation evolution of wireless technology or 5G.