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The FCC's announcement comes at an odd time in the

May 15, 2018 by Kimberly Parks

The FCC's announcement comes at an odd time in the country's wireless landscape. In September, the FCC announced that it had ordered Verizon to pay $2.5 billion in fines and fees relating to the violations.

While some lawmakers called for the FCC to step in, some critics argued that the agency had too many rules under the hood to deal with. The move prompted Congress to move the FCC to investigate the issue.

"Verizon is responsible for making illegal and misleading disclosures to the public," said Representative Peter King, chairman of the House Rules Committee, in a statement. "We owe it to the public to find out exactly how Verizon's violations went unnoticed in the public's mind."

A new report from the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) found that Verizon had $1.42 Billion in legal fees and $6.3 Billion in expenses related to the 4G LTE problem.

In February, the FCC announced its decision to dismiss a federal lawsuit filed by Verizon Wireless in U.S. district court in Los Angeles, claiming that the company had violated four FCC rules. The decision was expected to be appealed, but as of this writing, the case is still pending.

Verizon has denied that it intentionally overstated its data coverage. The FCC says that it didn't use a "precision measurement" to determine the speed of its 4G LTE network.

The report, released Monday by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, found that Verizon is responsible for making illegal and misleading disclosures to the public.

"Verizon is responsible for making illegal and misleading disclosures to the public," said Representative Peter King, chairman of the House Rules Committee, in a statement. "We owe it to the public to find out exactly how Verizon's violations went unnoticed in the public's mind."

But the fact that Verizon is being investigated is a significant step forward for Congress. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a ruling in February that found Verizon overstated its LTE coverage in government filings.

The ruling, which was issued in response to an April 6, 2009 lawsuit filed by four Verizon Wireless customers, effectively says that Verizon was deliberately misleading the public about its LTE coverage from the start. While the court had noted that Verizon had overstated its LTE coverage, the court found that the company was not "grossly overstated" in its regulatory filings.

Verizon is also under investigation by the SEC for violating the Communications Act of 1934, which states that "nothing shall be