Telecom network operator AT&T will pay $450,000 towards settlement with FCC after running illegal wireless services for 3-4 years.
“FCC’s Enforcement Bureau reached a $450,000 settlement with AT&T to resolve an investigation into whether AT&T operated fixed wireless stations without authorization or without filing required license modification notices,” said FCC in a statement.
The investigation, which started in 2012, has revealed that AT&T has operated numerous common carrier fixed point-to-point microwave stations throughout the United States in ways that differed from the stations’ licenses for periods ranging from three and a half years to over four years.
In August 2014, during the course of the investigation, AT&T reported to the Commission that it had discovered numerous inconsistencies between the licensed parameters and the constructed facilities of a large number of fixed microwave licenses that it acquired from 2009 through 2012.
The FCC statement said that AT&T did not review the acquired licenses, which resulted in the unauthorized operation of many of the stations by some of its subsidiaries. The Enforcement Bureau investigated the licensing history of approximately 250 AT&T stations to determine the extent of the unauthorized operations.
In January 2015, FCC adopted a Notice of Apparently Liability for Forfeiture to AT&T alleging violations that the company admitted to in today’s settlement.
AT&T, as per the settlement, has agreed to implement a compliance plan and will conduct reviews of wireless fixed microwave stations acquired in future transactions.
