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T-Mobile agreed to pay a $15.75 million civil penalty and make a separate $15.75 million cybersecurity investment over two years under a 2024 agreement with the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau. The combined $31.5 million is not all a fine, and the FCC agreement is separate from the $350 million class-action settlement tied to the 2021 breach.
How much is T-Mobile paying the FCC?
The agreement requires two distinct $15.75 million amounts: one is a civil penalty, and the other is additional cybersecurity spending over the two years following the agreement. Together they total $31.5 million, but only half is a penalty. The FCC’s consent decree also requires T-Mobile to implement a comprehensive security program.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau adopted the order on September 27, 2024, and released it on September 30, 2024. The decree resolves investigations into possible failures to protect customer proprietary information and customer proprietary network information, as well as related security practices and representations.
Which data breaches are covered?
The FCC agreement covers investigations connected with T-Mobile incidents in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The FCC described the combined affected population as millions of U.S. consumers, but its announcement does not give a precise total or counts for each incident.
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The decree is a negotiated resolution, not a finding that T-Mobile violated a specific security standard. It says the FCC Bureau and T-Mobile “disagree about whether T-Mobile’s network and data security program and policies in place at the relevant times violated any standard of care or regulation then applicable to T-Mobile.”
What T-Mobile said about the 2021 incident
In its August 2021 statement, T-Mobile said the attack affected millions of current, former and prospective customers. The company said some names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and driver’s license or other ID information were compromised, while financial and payment information was not exposed in that incident. Those details are T-Mobile’s account of the 2021 event; they should not be assumed to describe the 2022 or 2023 incidents. See the company’s August 2021 statement.
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What security changes does the agreement require?
The FCC described commitments covering foundational security improvements and cyber hygiene, including zero-trust architecture and phishing-resistant multifactor authentication. These are forward-looking obligations in a settlement; they do not establish that every vulnerability has been eliminated or guarantee that another breach cannot occur.
The decree’s background says T-Mobile had 119.7 million post-paid and prepaid customers in the United States. That figure describes the company’s customer base, not the number of people affected by the breaches.
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Is this the same as T-Mobile’s $350 million settlement?
No. The FCC consent decree and the 2021 class action are separate matters with different purposes and recipients. T-Mobile’s June 2026 SEC filing says the class action was finally approved in 2023 and that its $350 million fund covered submitted claims, plaintiffs’ legal fees and administration. The filing also reports $150 million spent on data security and related technology in 2022 and 2023 under that class settlement.
| Matter | Scope | Financial terms | What the money is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| FCC consent decree | FCC Enforcement Bureau investigations tied to 2021, 2022 and 2023 incidents | $15.75 million civil penalty plus $15.75 million cybersecurity investment over two years | Penalty to the government and separate required security spending; not a customer claims fund |
| 2021 class action | Federal class litigation tied to the August 2021 attack | $350 million fund, plus $150 million spent on security technology under the settlement, as reported by T-Mobile in its June 2026 SEC filing | Claims, legal fees and administration; separate security spending under the class settlement |
T-Mobile’s filing says the class settlement contained no admission of liability, wrongdoing or responsibility. The FCC agreement is not described in the cited sources as a fund for customer claims.
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