Verizon to Offer Broadband Lifeline, But Joins Others in Taking Forbearance Relief
Verizon said it plans to participate in the FCC's Lifeline expansion to broadband, starting next year, but in the meantime it joined many telcos and cable companies notifying the commission they were accepting its offer of forbearance relief from Lifeline…
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broadband service obligations. Verizon said it will participate in the FCC's broadband Lifeline program where it offers Fios fiber-to-the-home service. "We hope that providing qualifying low-income Americans with the choice to use their Lifeline benefit for our eligible broadband Internet access services will help address this affordability challenge and will be another useful step towards closing the remaining digital divide," wrote Verizon, among numerous filings posted in recent days in docket 11-42. "Although the Commission’s Lifeline support for broadband will soon go into effect, Verizon is still in the process of making the necessary system changes to support our participation in this program and to ensure compliance the Commission’s rules. We currently anticipate that we will begin offering Lifeline-supported Fios Internet access service in mid-2017," Verizon said, while providing the FCC with notification it was seeking "blanket forbearance" for areas where it's an eligible telecom carrier. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn tweeted Friday: "@Verizon commits to narrowing the #broadband affordability gap in FiOS areas by participating in @FCC#Lifeline program nxt yr! Great news!" AT&T, CenturyLink, Consolidated Communications, FairPoint Communications, Frontier Communications, Windstream, Cincinnati Bell, Hawaiian Telcom and Alaska Communications notified the FCC they were exercising their rights to Lifeline broadband forbearance relief, though the price-cap carriers noted they were subject to Lifeline broadband duties under Connect America Fund Phase II rules. Cox Communications, Charter Communications and many others also exercised their forbearance rights. Some parties reserved the right to offer Lifeline-supported broadband voluntarily.