https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/02/fcc-dings-company-for-164k-after-its-false-broadband-claims-distorted-national-report/

The FCC was deeply embarrassed last year when it was found that its rosy broadband deployment report was off by millions, owing to a single, extremely suspect filing that conjured 62 million customers out of thin air. The company responsible is being assessed a $163,912 fine, but the underlying problems that let it happen haven’t been fixed — as Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel assesses it: “What a mess.”

The issue, as critics and the Commission itself have pointed out for years, is that the broadband industry reports its own numbers on what amounts to the honor system. There’s no other explanation for how BarrierFree, which no one outside of one county could know of, could — after failing to file its paperwork properly 26 times — suddenly claim to serve a quarter of the country, and that information made it all the way to a national report and public statement by the Chairman.