FCC Tees Up TracFone Request on Lifeline Standards; Sprint Also Seeks Clarifications
The FCC sought comments by March 2, replies by March 9 on a TracFone request for clarification of Lifeline minimum service standards in a 2016 order extending the low-income phone subsidies to broadband. TracFone seeks clarification of sections 54.408 and…
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54.411 of the agency's rules, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 11-42. A Sprint filing posted Thursday on a meeting with bureau staffers requested "expeditious clarification of two aspects" of Section 54.408(b)(2) on minimum mobile broadband standards: (1) "That WiFi service does not satisfy the current 500MB mandated Lifeline mobile broadband data allotment requirement. Sprint explained that WiFi does not provide broadband service in locations (such as a Lifeline customer’s home) that otherwise lacks broadband access, and that allowing WiFi to count towards data allotments makes the escalating data allotment standards meaningless. [2] That Lifeline broadband customers who do not have a 3G-capable and configured device are not receiving the benefits of mobile broadband service and should accordingly not be considered BIAS [broadband internet access service] customers subject to the 12-month port freeze."