Lifeline reform continued to prompt significant discussion at...
Lifeline reform continued to prompt significant discussion at NARUC’s summer meeting in Denver. “It’s a cornerstone principle that we've got to take providers out of determining whether a customer is eligible,” said AT&T Assistant Vice President-Public Policy David Hostetter Monday…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
during a panel discussion. He commended the FCC reform overall and expressed great appreciation for the closing of loopholes. But it “can’t be a good structure or framework” for the entity that benefits commercially from subscribership to be the one determining eligibility, he said. AT&T advocates for “long-term functionality” through a single, automated process that could be built into the accountability database, potentially, Hostetter said, outlining different possibilities. He also recommended stakeholders take a closer look at who Lifeline customers are, which he judged would lead to a better job in designing future changes. “Clearly there’s a financial incentive to enter the market if you're a prepaid wireless provider,” said Montana Telecom Association General Manager Geoff Feiss, who advocated for curbing what he called the waste these incentives may have created. The NARUC telecom committee approved the other four resolution drafts, which will need to be formally adopted by the NARUC board Wednesday to become policy.