Wireline Bureau Extends Lifeline Waivers for Additional Year
In an order that it ties to the agency's “Delete” proceeding, the FCC Wireline Bureau on Tuesday extended for a year a waiver pausing the phase-out of Lifeline support for voice-only services and the increase in the Lifeline minimum service standard for mobile broadband data capacity (see 2307210068). Without the extension, support for services meeting only the voice minimum service standard, which currently stands at $5.25 per month, would be eliminated for most areas on Dec. 1, the bureau said. Without a pause, the minimum service standard for mobile broadband data capacity would rise from 4.5 GB per month to 29 GB, also starting Dec. 1.
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“Absent this action, the minimum service standard for mobile broadband data capacity would have experienced its largest increase since Lifeline minimum service standards were established,” the bureau said. “This action will avoid changes that could potentially result in the disruption of communications for Lifeline subscribers as the Commission establishes and evaluates the record in the Delete, Delete, Delete proceeding, a wide-ranging deregulatory review.” The order is in keeping with that proceeding’s “stated purpose of identifying FCC rules for the purpose of alleviating unnecessary regulatory burdens,” it said. The minimum service standard is “potentially the type of regulation the Delete, Delete, Delete proceeding is contemplating.”