Lifeline/Low-Income Consumers

Two tribes and a group of companies that get telecom subsidies under the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program want the FCC to hold off on its plan to limit the types of companies that get more Lifeline money to support subscribers on tribal lands. In 2017, the FCC approved a plan that would eliminate extra funding on tribal lands for wireless resellers, and limit the areas eligible for a higher subsidy. The enhanced subsidy adds an extra $25 to the monthly $9.25 per-subscriber total that Lifeline companies receive.

Nationwide, nearly two in five homeless youth identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. That adds up to 650,000 young people on our streets who face special risk of bullying, discrimination, and assault. To stay safe, they rely on something simple — a wireless phone. Many homeless LGBT young people are eligible for a program that helps them get wirelessly connected. It’s called Lifeline. For decades, Lifeline has been run by the Federal Communications Commission.

The Federal Communications Commission announced that the National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier database (National Verifier) is now operational in Colorado, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. 

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai sent a letter to Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA) and 31 other members of Congress on June 1, 2018, to respond to their letter that urged the FCC to halt its effort to cut off support for low-income tribal families through proposed changes to the Tribal Lands Lifeline program.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai sent letters to Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) and six other members of Congress and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and 67 members of Congress on June 1, 2018, to respond to their letters regarding the Lifeline program. Chairman Pai said the 2017 Lifeline Order increased consumer choice by eliminating restrictions that barred Lifeline consumers from changing Lifeline providers for a year and protected consumers by barring low-quality services that offered mobile broadband in theory, but failed to do so in practice.

When the National Network to End Domestic Violence polled nearly 300 domestic violence prevention programs, it found that 77 percent of domestic violence prevention programs distributed phones. These phones included devices from a program run by the Federal Communications Commission: Lifeline. But the FCC has proposed dramatically cutting the Lifeline program. It has announced plans to gut the service for 70 percent of current users. To justify these cuts, the agency says that because some phone companies abused the program by enrolling ineligible consumers, the program doesn’t work.

The Federal Communications Commission needs to fix a “flaw” in the online enrollment system for the Lifeline subsidy program that could hurt rural and other customers signing up for discounted phone service offered to low-income consumers, Q Link Wireless LLC recently told senior agency staffers. Q Link executives, including President Paul Turner, met with FCC representatives on May 23 to argue for including “application programming interfaces” in the national Lifeline verifier.

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission is pushing forward with changes to the Lifeline program, which would hamper recovery efforts and cut off hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans — who are also US citizens — from vital telecommunications services. The Trump administration’s FCC has proposed changes that would sharply alter the purpose and scope of the program, further antagonizing hurricane victims who are still struggling to rebuild. Before the catastrophic 2017 hurricane season, over 500,000 island households relied on the Lifeline program to stay connected.

The Federal Communications Commission is already taking steps to nix the dead enrollees in the agency’s low-income subsidy program known as Lifeline following a revelation from Sen Claire McCaskill (D-MO) that 47,942 deceased individuals were signed up between 2014 and October 2017. In July 2017,  FCC Chairman Ajit Pai directed the Universal Service Administrative Company, the nonprofit that manages the subsidies, “to take specific, immediate steps to mitigate waste, fraud, and abuse in the Lifeline program, including enrollment and subscribership of the deceased,” a FCC spokesman said.

A new rule championed by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai would limit internet and phone access for millions of low-income and elderly Americans. Chairman Pai's proposed changes to the Lifeline program, which currently serves 12 million Americans by providing subsidized phone and internet service, would cut service to about 70 percent, or 8 million, of them.