Pai Vows FCC, USAC Help Before Puerto Rico Lifeline NV Hard Launch
FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co. staff are addressing concerns on the Lifeline national verifier rollout in Puerto Rico and will monitor the soft launch, Chairman Ajit Pai wrote Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, R-Puerto Rico. The Jan. 3 letter was posted…
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Friday. The legislator and others in Puerto Rico, including the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board, had concerns about the conversion process. Pai said the FCC worked with USAC "to ensure that the National Verifier has the appropriate matching criteria for automated eligibility verification in Puerto Rico, in light of unique naming and address conventions in the territory." He was responding to an Oct. 31 letter from Gonzales-Colon. She had said it may take longer to make the system operational in Puerto Rico because some federal databases used to support eligibility requirements aren't accessible there. Pai said the "FCC staff has made substantial progress" on issues raised, including improving automated verification. The NV launched an application programming interface Dec. 1 (see 1912100065). The Puerto Rico agency responsible for the Programa de Asistencia Nutricional recently reached agreement with USAC to do technical work to connect the programs to verify eligibility, Pai said. The NV soft launched in Puerto Rico Oct. 11 (see 1909260052). Gonzalez-Colon's office didn't comment Monday amid earthquake relief efforts. Puerto Rico cellsite outages due to recent earthquakes fell below 2 percent Monday (see 2001130031).