How an FCC squabble over paperwork is jeopardizing a rural expansion of wireless services

The Federal Communications Commission is blocking an investment firm’s access to valuable wireless spectrum and threatening to take away its licenses because of a paperwork filing error—and the firm’s executives warn that customers in rural America will pay the price. Brevet Capital, with around $2.5 billion in assets under management, has been locked in what appears to be a strange, two-year bureaucratic snafu with regulators that began when it took over licenses for 112 satellites as part of a bankruptcy proceeding in 2021. “Strange” might be the operative word because the Trump administration has vowed to cut bureaucratic red tape to expand the economy. The people at Brevet say they can’t seem to get a clear answer from the FCC on how it can remedy the situation and put the spectrum to use.