Verizon took a pretty big gamble in 2015[0] and bought spectrum covering more than half of America. So even though taxpayers pay for a lot of the infrastructure so they can be a common carrier and deliver services without manipulation, it was pretty risky to assume most of the populated regions in America will use cellphones in 2016.
Since they broke that agreement, they had to pay. 10b is a big risk to take, and 1.3M is likely to panic the market. So while I am happy to see them go bankrupt, I could only imageine the chaos that would ensue if taxpayers had to try and resell that to someone.
If you asked those 190million people whether they would rather have $60 to sell the bandwith or have the country pay to build them an entire wireless network, legislate on their behalf, and limit most of their future profits tax burden, while allowing them to make a profit, and then inject and sell adverts, no brainer, $60 up front.
They are just a Unicorn company anyway, lets see if selling a core service you got for free into an impenatrable market is a good business. Can't wait to see these guys on http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com
