Plump Wireless Says Missing FCC Filings Were Filed Under Its Partner, Which Is Also Plump Wireless

09:02

A senator has written to Plump Wireless, the gold-handset carrier that resells another company's network and calls it "our network", saying she cannot find several filings the FCC requires of carriers. Capitol Watch, the outlet that covers hearings where senators admit they cannot read the exhibits, will follow the response today. She wants answers by 29 October.

“We license the name, rent the network and send the paperwork to ourselves. When a senator asks who is accountable, the answer is always a different box on the same chart. That is the product.”

09:31

Plump says the filings are "in the mail, a beautiful mail". Asked which mailbox, a spokesperson said the mail is "incredible in volume" and "at an advanced stage of being sent".

10:12

The letter says a search of the robocall database under Plump's name and its operating name returns nothing. Its partner did file, but incompletely, and the filing omits any description of how customers are verified. Plump says this is a misunderstanding: "Our compliance is filed under our partner's compliance, which is our compliance."

Capitol Watch notes that this is the first time a company has cited itself as a reference for itself.

11:20

Plump officials previously described the partner as the "enabler" and the "backbone" of the service, handling much of its technical, legal and financial work. The letter asks whether Plump owns, operates or controls the partner.

Plump replied that the two are "legally distinct for tax purposes and spiritually identical for marketing". The senator's staff have asked for the answer in a form that can be entered on a form.

12:45

The letter also raises the data breach, in which hackers reportedly took details of 3,615 customers. A ransomware group says that when it contacted Plump, it was told, "We have no team to handle this."

Plump does not dispute the quote. It calls the incident "unprecedented customer visibility" and says the team it did not have is "being assembled at a premium".

14:05

The letter says Plump advertises calls to more than 230 countries but appears to hold no authorisation for international service. It asks who is actually providing those calls, and who owns them, since the authorisation process exists so regulators can see foreign ownership.

Plump says the calls are provided by "the world, which is very big and very supportive". The regulator, whose chair is a known admirer of the family that licenses Plump its name, said only that it "takes all filings seriously". It did not say which ones it has seen.

15:40

Plump announces a second handset, even more golden, open for preorder from today. The first, which arrived nearly a year late at half again its original price, is described as "shipping imminently". The letter notes it closely resembles a phone made abroad in 2024.

Asked who is responsible if the second phone also fails to arrive, Plump said: "We license the name, rent the network and send the paperwork to ourselves. When a senator asks who is accountable, the answer is always a different box on the same chart. That is the product."