FCC fines largest wireless carriers nearly $200M for location data violations

The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, has fined AT&T (T), Sprint, T-Mobile (TMUS), and Verizon (VZ) nearly $200M for illegally sharing access to customers’ location data. Regarding AT&T, the FCC says, “We decline to withdraw the Admonishment or to cancel or reduce the $57,265,625 forfeiture proposed in the NAL.” Similarly, for Sprint the entity says it declines “to withdraw the Admonishment or to cancel or reduce the $12,240,000.” Regarding T-Mobile, FCC declines “to withdraw the Admonishment and, having already reduced the forfeiture by $11,550,000 to account for eight entities that were each counted twice in the original forfeiture calculation, decline to further reduce or to cancel the forfeiture amount of $80,080,000.” Lastly, discussing Verizon, it said it also declines “to withdraw the Admonishment and, having already reduced the forfeiture by $1,417,500 to account for two entities that did not participate in Verizon’s LBS program, decline to further reduce or to cancel the forfeiture amount of $46,901,250.”