from the pleased-to-pay-millions-despite-acting-appropriately dept.
IBM will pay $24.25 million to resolve FCC probes:
IBM Corp has agreed to pay $24.25 million to resolve [investigations] by the Federal Communications Commission(FCC) over subsidies awarded to connect schools and libraries to broadband.
[...] IBM [said] it "acted appropriately in its support of the E-rate program, but in the interest of amicably resolving a longstanding matter we are pleased to have reached this settlement".
More about the E-Rate: Universal Service Program from the FCC:
The FCC's E-Rate program makes telecommunications and information services more affordable for schools and libraries. With funding from the Universal Service Fund (fcc.gov/general/universal-service-fund), E-Rate provides discounts for telecommunications, Internet access, and internal connections to eligible schools and libraries.
[...] An eligible school or library [identifies] goods or services it needs and submits a request for competitive bids to the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). USAC posts these requests on its website for vendors to bid on. After reviewing the vendors' bids, the school or library selects the most cost-effective eligible products and services using price as the primary factor. It then applies to USAC for approval for the desired purchases.
Related Stories
Reported at The Register
Under the e-rate program run by the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, schools that do not have access to a fiber network supplied by the main cable companies can apply for federal funds to build or lease such a network, and so supply much faster internet access to their students.
[...] However, an analysis of the more than 800 applications for "special construction" by a company that provides e-rate consulting services, Funds for Learning, has shown an extraordinarily high failure rate of requests for funding, often for very minor reasons. As one example, 25 applications were denied by USAC because additional details requested by the company were not submitted by the applicants within a 28-day time limit – a rule that schools were almost certainly not aware of.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday December 28 2020, @12:31PM (1 child)
They would probably have to pay me to probe them to ...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2020, @01:11PM
Great! IBM, which stands for? I forget. And what are they doing now? Not like in the old days, where they helped keep track of the serial numbers tatooed on the arms of Jew in the Death Camps? Or is this more Jordan/Scott Peterson confusion and some Nazis being good people?
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday December 28 2020, @02:23PM (2 children)
What I wonder, as you may be able to tell, is why would IBM be so pleased to pay 24 million dollars if they didn't do anything wrong? Seems that either they did do wrong, or they are happy to pay that much to get the FCC off their backs. Either way, 24 million dollars is a bunch of money.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Monday December 28 2020, @02:58PM
I'd guess that after all these years, the cost of paying layers to keep arguing their side of things added up to the point where both became willing to just make it go away. The FCC could not easily prevail on the evidence (maybe the IBM lawyers kept finding "loopholes" or different interpretations of the law?). Good money after bad? Enough is enough? Just how much longer will this drag on and how much more will *that* cost? I dunno. IANAL, but that's my guess as to the motivation for the decision. Each got something, even if it was not a clear-cut, black-and-white decision for either party.
Wit is intellect, dancing. I'm too old to act my age. Life is too important to take myself seriously.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by krishnoid on Monday December 28 2020, @04:24PM
Some cable company or other wired telecommunications company, sure. But IBM? When I think of them, I think monolithic and maybe slow, but I don't think "petty theft-level shifty." I'd almost suspect that maybe the FCC was acting in a shifty way here, as if they favored entrenched telecommunications providers [engadget.com] for these sorts of projects hey wait a second ...