The FCC should fix the problems of extra Lifeline payments...
The FCC should fix the problems of extra Lifeline payments through a separate rulemaking, several associations said in an ex parte notice made public on Wednesday. In January, the Wireline Bureau ordered the Universal Service Administrative Co. to give Lifeline…
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customers who violate the “one per household” rule 30 days to select a single carrier or be dropped from the program. “The bureau, which lacks authority to promulgate substantive Lifeline rules, developed these rules without public input,” Wednesday’s letter said. It was signed by USTelecom, the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies, AT&T, Qwest, Windstream Communications, CTIA, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, Rural Cellular Association, Western Telecommunications Alliance, CenturyLink, TracFone Wireless and Verizon. “At a minimum, implementation of the new bureau rules must be suspended pending a rulemaking,” they said: “In addition to suffering from significant legal infirmities, these rules raise a number of operational issues of significant concern to the undersigned parties, which represent many of the state- or commission-designated” eligible telecommunications carriers.