One member of the Federal Communications Commission this week demanded an investigation into a $3 billion discount for Dish Network during the recent wireless spectrum auction.

The FCC has a designated entity (DE) program, which provides discounts to small businesses that want to purchase spectrum and compete with larger rivals.

As noted by Reuters, Dish and its partners invested in companies with very little revenue, which then bid in the auction as small businesses to receive a 25 percent discount. The move, according to Reuters, is "a relatively common process for FCC auctions."

So, when the companies spent $13.3 billion at the record-setting auction recently, they received a $3.3 billion discount for a total bill of about $10 billion.

Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai was not pleased with that outcome, saying this week that the discount "makes a mockery of the DE program."

Dish, however, pushed back. "We respectfully disagree with the criticism of the designated entity program, and we are confident that we fully complied with the DE rules in the AWS-3 auction," the company said in a statement.

"The DE program has been successful in providing much smaller entities the ability to access stronger capital structures, which has facilitated their meaningful participation in an auction process from which they would otherwise be precluded," Dish said.

In July, well before the AWS-3 auction began in November, Pai dissented from the FCC's decision to loosen the DE rules, saying that to do so was unlawful and would "invite arbitrageurs to make creative end-runs" around the guidelines.

"One of my fears was that the FCC was sending the message to big businesses that 'anything goes,'" he added. "I didn't expect to be this right."

Pai has now called on FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to review the multi-billion dollar subsidies, and suggested the agency reform its rules to stop abuse of the DE program.

"We must change course, and soon, by closing loopholes that allow big businesses to rip off the American people to the tune of billions of dollars," Pai said. "The American people should be outraged with this. I certainly am. And I am determined to do everything in my power to stop it from happening again."

Dish was the No. 3 big spender in this most recent auction behind Verizon Communications, which bought 181 licenses for $10.4 billion, and AT&T, which shelled out $18.2 billion for "a near nationwide contiguous 10x10 MHz block of high-quality AWS-3 spectrum."

For more, see Here's Where AT&T, Verizon, Dish Spent Their Billions.