The FCC will provide broadband for nearly 75,000 low-income people...
The FCC will provide broadband for nearly 75,000 low-income people who lack service, in 14 projects across 21 states and Puerto Rico as part of its Lifeline broadband adoption pilot program. It'll run 18 months, start Feb. 1 and subsidize…
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service for a year, the Wireline Bureau said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bn68f8). The bureau will collect and analyze data in the final three months, it said. The variety of projects will include five wireless broadband projects, seven wireline broadband projects and two that'll offer wireline or wireless, the FCC said. Seven will test discounted service in rural areas, including two on tribal lands, and seven in urban and suburban areas. Tested variables will include use of digital literacy training, equipment types, subsidy levels, speed ranges and usage limits, the bureau said. Lifeline has saved more than $210 million in 2012, the bureau said, saying that’s higher than its target. The FCC reiterated its Lifeline reforms, such as eliminating Link-Up subsidies and putting in place measures to limit one Lifeline subsidy per household. The broadband adoption pilot will cost $14 million, to come from the overall Lifeline savings, the commission said. Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said in a separate news release she was pleased with the FCC’s expansion of the Lifeline program for universal broadband adoption. “We must close the digital divide in this country and the FCC moving forward today to establishing a broadband adoption pilot program through the USF will move us closer to that goal,” she said.