FCC Announces Lifeline Minimum Service Standards and Indexed Budget

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau announced updated minimum service standards for Lifeline-supported service. The 2016 Lifeline Order established minimum service standards for certain Lifeline-supported services and established annual increases in those standards either in the FCC’s rules or pursuant to calculations set out in the Order and theFCC’s rules. Accordingly, the newly calculated minimum service standard for fixed broadband data usage allowance will take effect on December 1, 2022. On July 1, 2022, the Bureau acted to pause any increase in the Lifeline minimum service standard for mobile broadband data capacity.  As such, the standard will continue to be 4.5 GB per month until at least December 1, 2023. Beginning December 1, 2022, the Lifeline minimum service standard for fixed broadband data usage will be 1280 GB per month, as calculated from the 2022 Urban Rate Survey data. On December 1, 2022, the Lifeline minimum service standard for mobile voice service will remain unchanged, at 1000 minutes per month. The budget for federal universal service support for the Lifeline program for calendar year 2023 will be $2,572,862,300.