Action Needed Now to Preserve an Essential Lifeline During the Pandemic

Universal service is the principle that all Americans should have access to essential communications services, like phones and broadband. You may not have heard much about it, but a universal service crisis is right around the corner. Due to Federal Communications Commission inaction, nearly 800,000 people could lose phone service on December 1. On that day, changes in the FCC’s Lifeline program, which provides a modest monthly discount for communications services, mean that voice-only services like a home landline telephone and/or a cellphone will no longer be eligible for the discount. The changes could mean people losing service at a time they need it most. As the December 1 deadline approaches, the FCC should quickly act, first, to ensure low-income people do not lose their essential telephone service during the COVID-19 pandemic. And the FCC should come to grips with the reality that Lifeline’s $9.25/month subsidy is too small to connect low-income households with robust broadband service. With the rollout of the Emergency Broadband Benefit, and the possibility, on passage of the infrastructure bill, of a permanent American Connectivity Plan, the FCC should think about low-income subsidies for communications services holistically to allow low-income households to be connected as most middle- and upper-income people do: with both a wireline broadband subscription and a cellular data plan.

[John Horrigan is a Benton Senior Fellow and a national expert on technology adoption, digital inclusion, and evaluating the outcomes and impacts of programs designed to promote communications technology adoption and use. Horrigan is leading Benton’s research on the FCC’s Lifeline program.]