FCC Gives Guidance on Lifeline Broadband Providers, Minimum Service, State Role
FCC staff offered guidance to potential Lifeline broadband providers (LBPs) under the agency's new federal streamlined designation process for entities seeking subsidy support under the USF low-income program. All petitions for LBP status must be sent to the Wireline Bureau,…
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which won't accept or address LBP petitions before Federal Register publication of recent Office of Management and Budget approval of revised FCC-ordered information collection, said a bureau public notice Friday in docket 11-42. Although the commission gave the bureau six months to approve LBP applications, parties can qualify for 60-day streamlined treatment in which their requests will be deemed granted if they serve at least 1,000 non-Lifeline voice or broadband customers and have offered broadband services to the public for at least two straight years, the PN said. It also offered guidance to all providers on certain details for implementing minimum service standards for Lifeline-supported broadband service, and on state Lifeline roles. State authority to run their own Lifeline programs isn't affected, and they retain their oversight for the "eligible telecom carrier" relinquishment process for all non-LBP ETCs, said the PN, which clarified "that a provider’s designation as an LBP does not supersede any obligations the provider must fulfill as a result of any other ETC designation it has obtained." Similarly, the LBP process doesn't affect the authority states have exercised over the Lifeline marketplace, it said.