Pai Commends USAC Lifeline Responses but Remains Concerned, Seeks More Information

in the Lifeline USF program (see 1604180074). Pai said Henderson's responses confirmed that Total Call Mobile "was not alone" in "apparently overriding third-party identity verification (TPIV) safeguards"; apparent duplicate and ineligible enrollments drew an FCC-proposed $51 million fine against the company (see 1604080032). "Three of the companies identified by Total Call Mobile's agents indiscriminately overrode the TPIV safeguards between October 2014 and February 2015," Pai said in a Tuesday letter to Henderson that blacked out the companies' names. "The aggregate numbers for just these five months of enrollment are staggering. Roughly one third of the 2.5 million Lifeline subscribers enrolled by wireless resellers, or 821,482 subscribers, were enrolled using TPIV override," Pai said. Even without Total Call Mobile included, 11 other wireless resellers were responsible for 616,937 enrollments, he said: "That's outrageous." Pai commended USAC for changing the TPIV override process in February 2015, but said he remains concerned "that existing safeguards still may let unscrupulous carriers exploit the program." He said USAC staff still doesn't review "any document that verifies a person's identity" before a TPIV override is authorized. "Integrity of the process relies on the integrity of the carriers -- the only ones who know if a subscriber's identify is legitimate," he said. Pai asked Henderson for more information on 13 wireless resellers that USAC said frequently engaged in overriding and that weren't identified in his April 18 letter, and to answer various questions about USAC processes and policies.