The Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) has issued notices of apparent liability against ten entities for apparently failing to meet the educational requirements of their Educational Broadband Service (EBS) spectrum licenses. Under the applicable FCC rules at the time these licenses were issued, 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 programing per channel per week, and establish a local program committee in each community.
The Commission proposed a combined $47,548,500 in fines against the ten entities listed in this news release for apparently profiting from their licenses by sub-leasing their EBS spectrum without also providing measurable support for educational goals as mandated under their license rules. The Commission recently transformed this spectrum band to allow operation of advanced wireless services, but those new rules do not apply to the previously allocated EBS spectrum licenses at issue.
