With Mass Lifeline De-Enrollments Expected, TracFone FCC Petition Gets Support
TracFone got support both from industry and public interest groups for the FCC to address "serious shortcomings" in the Lifeline national verifier (see 1812030053) being deployed by Universal Service Administrative Co. FCC and industry officials said it’s not clear whether FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will press for further action, especially since the commission is reining in the program as part of a broader series of changes to the USF (see 1806060031). Without FCC action, mass de-enrollments will start Jan. 2, commented the National Lifeline Association in docket 17-287.
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The FCC’s next moves are hard to predict, said NaLA counsel John Heitmann of Kelley Drye. “Filings by industry and public interest groups indicate an alarming level of concern with the manner in which USAC is implementing the national verifier,” he said. “With millions of current subscribers potentially at risk … and enrollment of new subscribers having slowed to a trickle in national verifier states, there is substantial cause for alarm but reason to hope that the commission will seek to address some of this soon, as it is squarely at odds with the goals of the Lifeline program and Chairman Pai’s top-level goal of closing the digital divide.”
Without further action, more than half of all Mississippians will lose Lifeline service, as will nearly every such subscriber in Wyoming, “in the dead of winter,” Heitmann told us. “It’s high time for the commission to intervene.”
“I don’t think that business operational shortcomings are what Chairman Pai is focusing on at all, even though these shortcomings will adversely affect Lifeline-eligible consumers,” said Danielle Frappier of Davis Wright, who represents some Lifeline providers.
An FCC official said the companies in the affected states had 90 days to reverify consumers when their identities couldn't be reverified by the database. If the national verifier couldn’t verify a subscriber’s eligibility through a database, documents from the company or from the consumer, the consumer faces de-enrollment, but can re-enroll.
“TracFone wants to work with USAC and the commission to make the National Verifier a success,” a spokesperson emailed. “We also share Chairman Pai’s desire to reduce waste, fraud and abuse. The petition expresses our concerns that unless the issues we have identified are addressed immediately, then the Verifier is going to do more harm than good. At the end of the day, this sophisticated and expensive IT system cannot be so user-unfriendly that eligible low income applicants across the country are turned away.” The petition's list of concerns “was divided into those that require and can receive immediate Commission or USAC action and those that require more deliberative treatment,” the spokesperson said.
USAC’s changes “significantly altering eligibility proof requirements are overly burdensome, and prevent too many eligible recipients from receiving Lifeline,” public interest groups said. “The Commission should require USAC to take better, more-targeted and well-vetted steps to improve program integrity and enrollment, while abandoning the Chairman’s disastrous proposals to upend Lifeline altogether.” The groups warned TracFone’s proposed solution to create a “whitelist” for commercial addresses “could result in precluding a large portion of eligible Lifeline recipients.” The filing was signed by Access Humboldt, the Benton Foundation, Center for Rural Strategies, Free Press, National Hispanic Media Coalition, New America's Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, United Church of Christ and others.
TracFone “demonstrates that changes to eligibility requirements often demand a careful balance between program integrity and encouraging participation,” CTIA said. “The Petition raises important questions about whether the new guidelines announced by USAC are consistent with encouraging eligible low-income consumer participation. ... CTIA agrees with the Petition that the changes announced by USAC should be considered in a public rulemaking proceeding.”
"Many of the items on TracFone’s list will improve the efficiency of the National Verifier system, making the process more user-friendly while not compromising the goals of preventing waste, fraud and abuse,” Sprint commented. Lifeline provider Q Link also supported TracFone, saying USAC went beyond legal authority in issuing requirements. “As an initial matter, therefore, the Commission should immediately clarify that USAC’s purported document requirements do not have the force of law,” Q Link said. “The Commission should also initiate a new rulemaking so that it can assess the appropriate forms of documentation that are readily accessible to a low-income consumer and strike the appropriate balance between consumer access and program integrity.”