The Trump administration should preserve the FCC Lifeline program, create multilingual emergency alert system warnings and address employment discrimination in the communications industry, according to a list of 12 "imperatives" from the Multicutural Media Telecom and Internet Council to the president-elect's transition team Friday. Other imperatives included appointing an FCC that includes diversity concerns in its rulemakings, maintaining free data programs, and banning prison phone rate overcharging. Acting on the imperatives is "vitally important" to fixing the "dismally disproportionate levels of participation among diverse groups" in the communications industry, said MMTC in a release Monday. The group also wants a '"Glide Path' for the Short-Term Survival and Long-Term Humane Decommissioning of the AM Band in a Manner that Preserves Minority Ownership."
Universal Service Administrative Co. released a draft National Verifier Plan for the FCC Lifeline low-income telecom subsidy program, which is transitioning coverage to include broadband service and administrative oversight away from Lifeline providers (see 1603310056). USAC solicited comments between Dec. 5 and Dec. 30 for consideration in adoption of a plan expected out early next year. "Before it is published, the Final National Verifier Plan will be approved by the Wireline Competition Bureau and the Office of the Managing Director at the FCC," said the 101-slide USAC draft plan, which noted the final plan will be updated every six months during the expected 2017-19 implementation phase. To address what it saw as problems with Lifeline provider verification of consumer eligibility for the program, the FCC in March ordered the creation of a national verifier. The draft plan said the national verifier is to: "Create the Lifeline Eligibility Database (LED), which will be connected to state and federal data sources, to determine eligibility for both initial enrollment and annual recertification; Allow Service Providers, consumers, and state, territory, or tribal government users to check eligibility or enrollment status; and Calculate payments to Service Providers based on data available through National Verifier." The draft outlines initial USAC views on numerous issues in establishing the national verifier: stakeholder engagement, business architecture, data usage, data security and storage, tech systems and tools, organizational structure and staffing, business case, key performance indicators and metrics, risk management and transition management.
The Lifeline Connects Coalition asked FCC staff to temporarily waive new rules that shorten a "nonusage window" from 60 days to 30 days and a "cure period" from 30 days to 15 days. Under rules adopted as part of a FCC Lifeline broadband and administrative overhaul, many wireless Lifeline providers would be required to de-enroll low-income customers who don't use the subsidized service for 30 days and fail to cure that nonuse in 15 days. Absent a waiver, "many eligible low-income consumers face the significant likelihood that they will through no action of their own be denied Lifeline benefits to which they are entitled and for which they have expressed no desire to discontinue," said an LCC petition to the Wireline Bureau posted Wednesday in docket 11-42, saying millions may lose service. The LCC also asked the bureau to direct Universal Service Administrative Co. to rescind guidance that would implement the 30-day nonusage rule prior to Dec. 2, which the group called "unlawful and impractical" to administer. It further asked the commission to waive a rule barring reimbursements for providers serving Lifeline subscribers enrolled in the program who are in a non-usage cure period. The LCC said the rules should be waived until the commission resolves TracFone's related petition for reconsideration and stay motion (see 1609190008). LCC members are Telrite, i-wireless, Blue Jay Wireless and American Broadband & Telecommunications Co.
A state commission urged the FCC to delay processing several companies' applications to be Lifeline broadband providers until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit resolves states’ appeal of the FCC Lifeline order extending the low-income program to broadband. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission Public Utilities Division (PUD) submitted a request Thursday in docket 09-197 to hold in abeyance the application of Blue Jay Wireless for FCC designation as an eligible telecom carrier under the Lifeline broadband program. The Blue Jay application is one of the first since the FCC pre-empted states for Lifeline ETC designation. The PUD said it’s unresolved whether the FCC has authority to pre-empt states and issue its own designations, a question that is the subject of the D.C. Circuit case. It’s also unresolved what role state regulatory agencies will have in monitoring activities of federally designated broadband ETCs, a question that's the subject of a Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission petition for clarification at the FCC, it said. “PUD is concerned about the potential negative impacts to the Lifeline market if the FCC grants ETC designation where statutory authority does not exist and the loss of what, to date, has been effective oversight by states, such as Oklahoma, of the ETCs participating in the Lifeline market.” OCC asked the FCC to hold off on several more applications in the docket Friday. Earlier last week, NARUC asked the D.C. Circuit to reject an FCC motion to suspend review of the Lifeline order pending agency resolution of petitions to reconsider parts of its recent overhaul of the low-income telecom subsidy program (see 1610120050).
Parties got more time to comment on a District of Columbia Public Service Commission notice of inquiry about issues raised in the FCC Lifeline order. Comments on docket FC988 were due Monday, but in a notice on the due date, the PSC extended the deadline to Nov. 7, and replies to Nov. 21. The PSC also recently extended the comments deadline on a related notice of proposed rulemaking (see 1610030013).
Mulling effects of the FCC Lifeline order, the District of Columbia telecom regulator gave more time for comments on a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) about changes required by the federal order adding broadband support to the low-income fund (see 1609260067). The comments were due Monday, but the D.C. Public Service Commission extended the deadline to Oct. 17, and reply comments to Oct. 31 from Oct. 17. “Due to the requirement that the rule changes required by the Lifeline Modernization Order be in effect by December 1, 2016, there can be no further extensions of time for this NOPR,” the commission said in the Friday notice. Meanwhile, the Kentucky Public Service Commission previewed changes to Lifeline in a news release Monday. "The PSC is currently examining the future of the Kentucky Universal Service Fund (KUSF), which provides the state portion of the Lifeline subsidy," the Kentucky commission said. "The KUSF had been rapidly depleted in recent years, prompting the PSC in March to temporarily increase the surcharge in order to keep the fund solvent while determining its long-term viability." Revenue from contributions to state USFs has declined in multiple jurisdictions, our July canvassing found (see 1607010010).
Effective dates for numerous new FCC Lifeline rules were set after the Federal Register published a commission item Monday announcing Office of Management and Budget approval of related information collection. Some rules took effect Monday while others will take effect Dec. 2 and Jan. 1, the item said. Davis Wright attorney Danielle Frappier, who represents clients tapping Lifeline funding, told us most of the changes will become effective Dec. 2. She said a Lifeline budget (which the FCC set at $2.25 billion per year going forward) took effect June 23, that carriers can file applications as of Monday to become "Lifeline Broadband Providers" under the agency's new streamlined designation process, and that new recertification rules will take effect Jan. 1. The Wireline Bureau later on Monday issued a public notice in docket 11-42 further outlining the effective dates of particular rules. The Lifeline overhaul order adopted in March extended low-income USF support from voice to broadband service and streamlined program administration in various ways (see 1603310056).
It’s too risky to increase New Mexico definitions of broadband and unserved and underserved areas in the state’s Rural USF, Public Regulation Commission staff said Monday. In comments on proposed rules taking effect Jan. 1 for the RUSF, the PRC's Telecom Bureau staff urged only conservative actions to avoid litigation. That followed industry opposition in Oregon last week to a proposal to include “access to broadband” in the definition of basic phone service.
The California Public Utilities Commission is seeking comment on how to modify the state LifeLine program for low-income households in light of the recent FCC Lifeline order, CPUC Commissioner Catherine Sandoval said in a ruling Thursday. The ruling also asks questions on several other issues on the state program. “The key policy areas the Commission may need to address as a result of the FCC’s Order include: the future role of the California LifeLine Program, the services supported by California LifeLine, the defining characteristics of a low-income household, and the entity tasked with the responsibility of enrolling consumers,” CPUC said. “More generally, this Ruling invites parties to suggest ways this Commission may advance its decades-old commitment to California LifeLine in light of the FCC’s 'modernized' federal Lifeline program and California’s statutory commitments to universal and affordable telecommunications service including basic telephone service and its policies to promote access to broadband internet access services.” The comments on the FCC order are due Oct. 7, replies Oct. 17, CPUC said. States have sued the FCC over the Lifeline order, and at a July NARUC meeting Sandoval said California may want to opt out of national Lifeline verification because the state already has a strong third-party verifier (see 1607270020).
The FCC could learn much about process from state utility commissions, said state commissioners in interviews amid their lawsuit against the federal regulator over usurping state powers (see 1606030053). State commissioners from both parties and four states said it should be a priority for the FCC to answer stakeholder concerns about transparency and politicization at the federal agency. NARUC President Travis Kavulla told us his Montana Public Service Commission "and probably most state commissions have much more sunshine than the FCC does." The FCC isn’t dysfunctional, but to maintain public trust it shouldn’t take openness concerns lightly, said Florida PSC Commissioner Ronald Brisé.