States Seen More Likely Than Wireless Providers to Get FCC Lifeline Timing Relief
The FCC looks likely to give state regulators some relief from a Friday Lifeline deadline, but wireless Lifeline providers appear less likely to get relief, stakeholders told us Wednesday. State commissions in California and elsewhere filed waiver petitions seeking more time to implement an FCC requirement that they adhere to federal criteria in determining consumer eligibility for the federal Lifeline low-income telecom subsidy program (see 1610310028 and 1610210046). Previously, states could add criteria.
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"There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that the commission is seriously considering the petitions, and I believe many of them will be granted, if not all,” said NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay. He said Wisconsin, for example, had just invested considerable resources in updating its Lifeline eligibility database under previous FCC standards. "They’ve basically spent a whole lot of money to make their database compatible with the old standards” and can't make it compatible with the new standards by Friday, he said.
Ramsay said he didn't know what the agency would do on a related USTelecom petition seeking such Lifeline eligibility relief for numerous state regulatory commissions. USTelecom, an FCC spokesman and aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Ajit Pai didn't comment. Clyburn has been a Lifeline champion and Pai is seen as likely to become acting chairman when President-elect Donald Trump takes office (see 1611140066).
TracFone and other wireless Lifeline providers appear less likely to get relief from a decision that will shorten a "nonusage" rule -- triggering provider de-enrollment of consumers -- from 60 days to 30 days, said Davis Wright attorney Danielle Frappier, who represents Lifeline providers. She said the situation remains hard to predict, but was skeptical the Democratic-run FCC would grant the relief. "I just think it’s a really touchy time for the Democrats to start relaxing some of the things they adopted in the order when Pai said they didn’t go far enough, and he’s going to be the interim chair," said Frappier. Wireless lifeline providers warned that millions of Lifeline users could needlessly be kicked off the Lifeline rolls under the new rule (see 1610260033 and 1611220052). Frappier said text messages will now count as usage under the new FCC de-enrollment rules, which will ease the problem somewhat.
“I haven’t gotten any signals from the FCC that they were inclined to revisit any aspects of the Lifeline rules, except maybe in response to the [USTelecom] and state waiver requests, which we also support," said GreenbergTraurig attorney Mitchell Brecher, who represents TracFone. One knowledgeable source said the FCC could make some sort of announcement as early as Thursday.