FCC Grants TracFone Petition for Lifeline Support
The FCC conditionally granted a TracFone Wireless petition seeking forbearance from a rule barring firms that don’t own facilities from participating in the agency’s “Lifeline” low-income support program. TracFone has said it needs the forbearance to be designated an ETC to get Lifeline support, since it provides service entirely on a resale basis. Tues. was the deadline for the FCC to act.
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Forbearance from Sec. 214(e) and related rules is “conditional on TracFone attaining ETC designation, providing to Lifeline customers services that include basic and enhanced 911 capabilities regardless of whether the handset is activated, providing Lifeline customers E- 911 compliant handsets only, obtaining certification from public safety answering points of its compliance with basic and enhanced 911 obligations in the areas in which it operates, and adopting sufficient safeguards to ensure the integrity of the Lifeline program,” the FCC said.
TracFone attorney Mitchell Brecher told us the conditions “aren’t surprising because E-911 is very important to the Commission and to the public and I anticipated that the FCC would impose E-911 conditions on the petition.” Forbearance “makes it possible for the FCC to consider specific ETC petitions that TracFone has pending and we look forward to prompt and favorable consideration of those petitions,” he said. TracFone has filed 8 ETC designation petitions for N.Y., Fla., Va., Mass., Conn., Ala., Tenn. and N.C.
The petition raised concerns in the industry. Opponents said if the FCC considers changing its rules, it should do it in a rulemaking. USTelecom warned the Commission of “the potential for harm to the integrity and efficient management of the Universal Service Fund” that, it said, existed “without sufficient consideration of the problems inherent in TracFone’s request.” But, Brecher said: “One of the concerns by USTelecom was that granting the petition would increase the amount of money that goes into the USF. The increase would be very modest, because our proposal is limited to Lifeline. And a reason there is a USF is to make service available to low-income consumers and that’s what TracFone is trying to do.”
“Granting forbearance furthers the Commission’s goal of boosting participation in the Lifeline program,” the FCC said. Lifeline is aimed at ensuring that low-income consumers have access to quality telecom services at reasonable rates. Only about 1/3 of households eligible for low-income assistance subscribe to the program, the FCC said.