Non-Public:  For Internal Use Only
Media Contact: 
Will Wiquist, (202) 418-0509
will.wiquist@fcc.gov
For Immediate Release
FCC ANNOUNCES PAYMENT OF OVER $600 MILLION BY 
STRAIGHT PATH & VERIZON TO SATISFY SETTLEMENT TERMS
WASHINGTON, February 28, 2018—The Federal Communications Commission today 
announced that Straight Path Communications and Verizon Communications have paid a civil 
penalty of over $600 million dollars to the U.S. 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 U.S. 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.  
The settlement required Straight Path to sell its licenses and remit 20 percent of the overall 
proceeds of the transaction to the U.S. Treasury.  Verizon and Straight Path entered into an 
agreement on May 11, 2017 to transfer the licenses, and on January 18, 2018, the 
Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau approved the transfer.  
Today, Straight Path and Verizon paid $614,300,000 to the U.S. Treasury to satisfy the terms 
of the consent decree.  This payment is in addition to $15 million that Straight Path previously 
paid to the U.S. Treasury, and its earlier relinquishment of 196—approximately 20 percent—of 
its licenses to the Commission that were not included in its transaction with Verizon.  
The settlement, formally known as a Consent Decree, is available at: 
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-17-40A1.pdf
The transfer of control order is available at:
https://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2018/db0118/DA-18-52A1.pdf 
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This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order 
constitutes official action.  See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).