Infiniti Mobile hemorrhaging subscribers – report

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(Source: Tim Armitage/Alamy Stock Photo)

New data shows "serious difficulties" for Infiniti Mobile, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) offering service through the federal government's Lifeline program. According to a recent report on the prepaid wireless market from Wave7 Research, the previously second-largest Lifeline provider shed 45% of its Lifeline subscribers between June and July 2026, dropping from 1.16 million as of June, to 635,000 as of July.

The drop in subscribers appears to coincide with enforcement action taken by the FCC to ban Infiniti Mobile (IM Telecom) from enrolling new customers through the Lifeline benefit, after the FCC found the company violated compliance rules associated with the low-income telecom subsidy program.

According to an FCC press release published on July 27, those violations include: "transferring thousands of former subscribers back to IM Telecom without their consent after they decided to switch providers," "creating a payment scheme to evade the FCC's non-usage rules," "failing to obtain affirmative consent from subscribers before enrolling or transferring them to IM Telecom," changing the company's corporate control "without obtaining required federal approvals" and "using bots to evade limits previously imposed on IM Telecom's suspicious application, enrollment, and customer transfer activity."

Related:Gomez slams FCC's proposed Lifeline changes

The press release further added that the FCC would consider "potential additional actions beyond barring new enrollments" and noted that "IM Telecom is required to work with the FCC and USAC in efforts to enable existing and legitimate customers of IM Telecom to switch to another provider of Lifeline service."

The FCC also said it's "not alone" in its concerns about the company: "This month, federal agents executed search warrants on multiple individuals associated with IM Telecom," said the Commission in its July press release.

That's in addition to California and Oregon which have "both issued cease-and-desist letters limiting IM Telecom's ability to operate in those states based on concerning activity," added the FCC at the time.

AirTalk next to drop?

Based on the latest available data from July, the hit to Infiniti Mobile's numbers has sent that provider from second- to fourth-largest in the Lifeline program, according to Wave7, and brought the overall subsidy program's subscriber numbers down a chunk as a result.

"Infiniti Mobile is in fourth place with 635K subscribers, as detailed above, amid a huge fall in its subscribership," said Wave7 in its September report. "The overall Lifeline market has 6.9M subscribers, amid a sharp loss of ~600K subscribers in July due largely to issues with Infiniti Mobile."

Related:FCC flags $10M fine for two Lifeline providers

Such issues extend beyond Infiniti Mobile, however. Just last week, the FCC announced $10 million in fines for AirVoice Wireless and TAG Mobile, which share common ownership, for engaging in "fraudulent schemes" and violating program rules.

As Wave7 noted in its September report, AirVoice (which operates its Lifeline service under AirTalk) is currently the top Lifeline provider with 1.6 million subscribers as of July. According to Wave7, the company is "heavily focused on Lifeline services" and "has strong subscriber growth."

But whether this latest FCC enforcement action against AirVoice has a similar impact on that company's subscriber base to IM Telecom's remains to be seen. Notably, after the FCC announced its enforcement action against IM Telecom in July, AirVoice posted a blog encouraging customers to "see if AirTalk is right for you" with details on how to transfer their Lifeline benefit.

"What I know concretely is that AirTalk had 1.6M Lifeline subscribers as of July and likely has some non-Lifeline subscribers as well. Several years ago, the company was talking about launching stores in ten states and a page for this is still seen on the AirVoice website," Jeff Moore, principal of Wave7 Research, told Light Reading via email when asked about the potential impact of the FCC's enforcement action last week on AirTalk subscriber numbers.

But there may be other signs of trouble for the company. According to Wave7's report, AirVoice "has a long history of having a booth at the All Wireless & Prepaid Expo," an annual industry conference hosted in Las Vegas. However, the report added: "that was not the case at the August 2026 edition of the Expo."

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