T-Mobile will pay $200 million to settle FCC investigation into misuse of phone subsidies

T-Mobile will pay $200 million to end an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission into misuse of funds from its low-income phone and internet subsidy program. The commission says the payment represents the “largest fixed-amount settlement” it’s ever secured to resolve an investigation.

The subsidy issues stem from Sprint before the company was acquired by T-Mobile. The commission says that more than 1 million Sprint customers on subsidized plans should have had their service cut off for non-usage. Instead, Sprint continued collecting subsidies for service it wasn’t providing for “an extended period of time.” Service providers are supposed to begin removing customers who stop using subsidized phone and internet plans after...

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