National Exchange Carrier Association

NECA is introducing two temporary discount programs to help rural phone and internet providers recognize the needs of students in low-income households for broadband services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The filing, effective Oct 1, will allow carriers to facilitate prolonged at-home student learning by helping low-income households access much needed higher bandwidths or those without broadband access to acquire it. The programs will allow companies to offer:

Replies to oppositions were filed on August 8, 2016 to petitions for reconsideration of the Lifeline Reform Order.

• USTelecom asserted the Federal Communications Commission cannot require rolling recertification prior to implementation of the national verifier, impose port freeze requirements and should extend the effective date for implementation of the streamlined eligibility criteria and the offering of bias for the federal lifeline program.
• CTIA asserted the FCC should seek public input on a more economically justifiable standard and reconsider the decision to set the long-term minimum capacity standards for mobile broadband at 70 percent of the average mobile data usage per household.
• TracFone claimed a 12 month port freeze rule for broadband Lifeline is appropriate and Lifeline customers should have choice in how they use their Lifeline supported device.
• NASUCA claimed retaining standalone voice as a Lifeline-eligible service on a network designed for broadband is beneficial to both customers and carriers.

Internet researchers and technologists sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Wheeler and the FCC Commissioners on August 6, 2016 to express concern with certain portions of the broadband privacy NPRM. They attached proposed language to section 64.7002(a) that they claim seeks to exempt researchers and technologists who are engaged in internet research, balancing consumer privacy with the benefits of technical research that fundamentally depends on data-sharing agreements between BIAS providers and internet researchers.