The federal government has accused Sprint Corp. of failing to provide service to low-income subscribers after accepting millions of dollars in subsidies to do so.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said Tuesday he's asked the agency's enforcement bureau to investigate.

KCUR reports Sprint said it had used government funds to provide monthly subsidies for about 885,000 subscribers to the program, called Lifeline. Under the program, low-income consumers are given a $9.25 monthly subsidy toward phone and broadband servic.

FCC spokesman Mark Wigfield said it's unclear how much money Sprint received for the program. But Sprint collected at least $8.2 million a month for some period of time.
Sprint said in a statement that it made an error in July 2017 while implementing changes to the Lifeline program that the FCC had approved.

Sprint said it would reimburse federal and state governments for subsidy payments collected because of the error.

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