Lifeline Uncertainty Won't Cause FCC to Quickly Address Net Neutrality Remand
Stakeholders are debating how Lifeline is regulated after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit remanded to the FCC rules on its authority to make broadband eligible for the program. That ruling came in partly upholding the agency's…
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2018 net neutrality order reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title I information service. The 2-1 court decision points up uncertainty with Lifeline, stakeholders agreed in interviews this month. Lifeline provider TruConnect believes Oct. 1's Mozilla v. FCC ruling eliminated FCC authority to establish and enforce broadband minimum service standards under the 2016 Lifeline order, said counsel Judson Hill in filings to docket 11-42 on meetings with FCC officials. Hill, a former GOP Georgia legislator, also spoke with us. USTelecom Senior Vice President Patrick Halley said the FCC doesn't lack authority to regulate broadband in Lifeline, but the court found it didn't sufficiently address the matter (see 1910100059). Because it wasn't vacated, "the FCC will be in no rush to do this," predicted Harold Feld, Public Knowledge senior vice president. So resolving the issue may take time, Feld said. An FCC spokesperson Tuesday said the court hadn't yet issued its mandate on the remand. Chairman Ajit Pai acknowledged industry's awaiting an answer on a petition to delay increasing broadband minimum service standards, and agency staff's is aware of the Dec. 1 deadline for the threshold to increase, answering our question Friday after the commissioners' meeting. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel noted the remand was partly because "the agency disregarded how reclassification impacts" Lifeline users. "The FCC is guilty of more than indifference" as it "cut access to Lifeline on tribal lands," she said in a statement. "Thankfully, the court sent this effort back to the agency, too. But in the meantime, the FCC still has open a proposal to cut as much as 70% of the remaining Lifeline program" through a 2017 NPRM and an item circulated in August. "Instead of using our policymaking power to threaten their access to communications, the agency should throw out this proposal and start over." PK's Feld suggested the agency seek comment. Technology Policy Institute Research Fellow Sarah Oh is interested to see comments if the FCC issues another NPRM on the remanded Lifeline broadband matter. "They'll need very good reasons for changing Lifeline," Oh told us. She predicted the agency will issue a broader Lifeline order next year.