FCC Proposes Over $47 Million In Fines For Failing To Meet Educational Requirements For Licensed Spectrum

The Federal Communications Commission proposed fines on 10 entities for apparently failing to provide the educational services required by Educational Broadband Service (EBS) spectrum licenses they hold. The parties also apparently failed to meet their obligations to maintain local program committees to inform the use of their respective licenses in the 2.5 GHz band. Under applicable FCC rules at the time, non-local EBS licensees were required to reserve a minimum of 5% of their capacity for educational use, provide at least 20 hours of educational programming per channel per week, and establish a local program committee in each community where it did not have a local presence. The premise of the EBS licensing regime was that the opportunity to sub-lease spectrum would help incentivize licensees to continue providing educational services via their remaining capacity. The entities cited sub-leased the spectrum to their substantial financial benefit but apparently failed to meet their obligation to support the education of students in their communities of license. The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau began an investigation into the apparent misuse of this spectrum following FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr’s inquiries to the entities about their activities. The FCC recently transformed the 2.5 GHz band in which EBS licensees operated to make all of this vital mid-band spectrum available for advanced wireless services, including 5G. For the 50 years prior to this change, the FCC consistently required EBS licensees to meet educational obligations. The parties facing proposed fines —all of whom obtained their EBS licenses before the recent rule change—apparently failed to meet the obligations while they still were in effect. Enforcement of FCC rules in such circumstances is important nonetheless to ensure that licensees take their responsibilities seriously.

The proposed forfeiture amounts were based on the number of apparent violations and the number of days those apparent violations took place for each license held by a licensee.

• Clarendon Foundation, Inc. – $3,346,000
• Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network – $14,013,000
• National Conference on Citizenship – $1,590,000
• North American Catholic Educational Programming Foundation – $8,268,000
• Northern Arizona University Foundation – $5,485,000
• Rockne Educational Television, Inc. and The Learning Paradigm, Inc. – $3,975,000
• Shekinah Network – $6,377,500
• Views on Learning, Inc. – $2,745,000
• Voqal USA – $1,749,000