FCC Announces Updated Lifeline Minimum Service

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau updated minimum service standards levels for speed and usage allowances for Lifeline-supported services as required by the 2016 Lifeline Order including newly-calculated minimum service standards for fixed broadband. The FCC reminded providers of the updated minimum service standards for mobile broadband and mobile voice service. These standards will take effect on December 1, 2018. Finally, the FCC announced that the budget for federal universal service support for the Lifeline program for calendar year 2019 will be $ 2,327,114,250.

• Beginning December 1, 2018, the Lifeline minimum service standard for fixed broadband speed will be 18 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream. The standard for fixed broadband data usage will be 1000 GB per month.
• Beginning December 1, 2018, the Lifeline minimum service standard for mobile broadband data usage will increase to 2 GB per month. The Lifeline minimum service standard for mobile broadband speed remains 3G mobile technology.
• Beginning December 1, 2018, the Lifeline minimum service standard for mobile voice service will increase to 1000 minutes per month.
• The indexed budget for federal universal service support for the Lifeline program for the calendar year beginning January 1, 2018 was $2,279,250,000, and the indexed budget for the calendar year beginning January 1, 2019, will be $2,327,114,250.