FCC Bureau Denies Lifeline Provider Appeals of USAC Decisions; NaLA Cites NPRM Concerns
FCC staff denied 14 requests for review of Universal Service Administrative Co. Lifeline decisions on duplicative support in the low-income program. The Wireline Bureau upholds "USAC’s decision to combat program waste by recouping funds from eligible telecommunications carriers who impermissibly…
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enrolled and then sought funding for the same customer more than once," said an order Monday in docket 11-42. Petitions were filed by Assist Wireless, Boomerang Wireless, Easy Wireless, Global Connection, Head Start Telecom, iWireless, Nexus Communications, Telrite and True Wireless. "Petitioners have not presented sufficient evidence indicating that the subscribers at issue were separate eligible Lifeline subscribers and not duplicates," said the bureau. "Nor have Petitioners presented any evidence that they investigated any of the nearly identical or substantially similar records flagged by USAC prior to seeking compensation or that they had in place internal procedures designed to flag such records for investigation." Representatives of some of the providers didn't comment Tuesday. Separately, the National Lifeline Association told bureau staffers of "the nearly complete lack of support in the record for [an NPRM] proposal to ban resellers from the Lifeline program," said an NaLA filing. NaLa cited other "troubling proposals in the NPRM that could effectively eviscerate the Lifeline program’s ability to address the affordability aspect of the digital divide," including to require resellers to pass through the full $9.25 monthly subscriber subsidy to underlying carriers. It said instead of "perpetuating the paternalistic mandatory family-sized service plans" and phasing out support for voice services, the FCC should allow consumers to choose among voice and data options, including bundles. NaLa said the new national verifier will help prevent program abuse but criticized the FCC's 2017 decision not to institute an application programming interface, which it said would force USAC to screen all applicants, wasting resources. Telrite, Boomerang and Global Connection petitioned to extend by 30 days a May 30 deadline for recertifying the Lifeline eligibility of certain subscribers in Puerto Rico.