Disability Groups Oppose FCC Lifeline Proposals; TracFone Renews Standards Bid
Advocates for people with disabilities urged the FCC to back off Lifeline proposals to bar pure resellers, and to impose mandatory "co-pay" charges on eligible low-income consumers. The proposals "would cause irreparable harm to the very consumers this program is…
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intended to help," wrote the American Association of People with Disabilities, Hearing Loss Association of America, National Association of the Deaf, National Council on Independent Living and World Institute on Disability, posted Wednesday in docket 17-287. They asked the FCC to suspend the subsidy phaseout of voice-only Lifeline support across the country, not just in rural areas. TracFone renewed a request for a Section 54.408(b) waiver or a ruling that it could comply with minimum service standards by giving customers "a specified quantity of 'units' per month," the subject of a November emergency petition (see 1711030064). "Those units could be used at the consumers’ discretion either for voice service, mobile broadband Internet access service, or for a combination," it said, noting updated standards taking effect Dec. 1 (see 1807180038).