The FCC announced that it has repaid in full the $3.08 billion loan it borrowed from the U.S. Treasury in March 2025 to support the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, commonly known as the “Rip-and-Replace” program. The program was established to help eligible communications providers remove, replace, and dispose of covered communications equipment and services deemed to present national security risks. According to the FCC, the early repayment was made possible in large part by the successful AWS-3 spectrum auction (Auction 113), which generated approximately $3.572 billion in winning bids.
