Consumer Cellular Seeks ETC Status in Five States
Consumer Cellular, a low-cost wireless carrier, is trying to become the latest mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) to get FCC clearance so it can offer Lifeline service under the federal Universal Service Fund program. Consumer Cellular is best known because of a partnership with AARP and provides low-cost service to many senior citizens. It sells service that uses the AT&T network.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
In March, the commission agreed to allow prepaid wireless provider TracFone to “self certify” that it’s providing 911 service to Lifeline customers in various states, in the aftermath of state inaction, so it can gain ETC status in those states. The commission also approved Virgin Mobile’s petitions to offer Lifeline service as an eligible telecommunications carrier in four states, but dismissed a petition to serve Pennsylvania. Both applications proved controversial.
Consumer Cellular last week asked the FCC for ETC status to provide service in Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The carrier said in a filing that while the FCC normally charges state commissions with the responsibility of designating carriers as ETCs the agency can step in in states where the state commission lacks such authority. “Consumer Cellular has provided an affirmative statement by each of the Subject States confirming that they lack the authority to designate Consumer Cellular as an ETC,” the company said. “Consumer Cellular, therefore, asks the Commission to perform this designation.”
In June, Consumer Cellular asked the FCC to forbear from a requirement that an ETC must provide service over its own facilities, as the commission already did for TracFone and Virgin Mobile.
“Consumer Cellular has a unique wireless service tailored to low-income consumers, and a service that provides special benefits to a frequently overlooked subsection of America’s low-income consumers: the elderly,” the company said. “Consumer Cellular, if granted ETC designation in the Subject States, could provide direct, postpaid service to low-income customers. Consumer Cellular’s postpaid service means that low-income consumers have the maximum amount of flexibility in choosing a wireless service targeted directly to them.”