Universal Service Fund

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Federal Communications Commission alerted Lifeline carriers, beneficiaries, and the public to the potential for widespread carrier non-compliance with the Lifeline usage rule. The Advisory provides examples of usage rule violations the OIG has encountered in its ongoing investigations of Lifeline carriers, including reimbursements sought for subscriber accounts that have never had any qualifying usage.

CenturyLink has benefited the most from the Connect America Fund (CAF) II, a Federal Communications Commission program that has awarded Universal Service Funds to telecommunication operators to build broadband in unserved and underserved areas of the US, especially rural areas. CenturyLink has received $506 million per year since 2015 in CAF II awards, which will total more than $3 billion over the six-year period from 2015 to 2020. Now, the FCC has proposed a follow-on program to CAF.

New America's Open Technology Institute urged the Federal Communications Commission to abandon a cynical set of proposals that would weaken the Lifeline program and jeopardize consumer privacy.

Free Press condemned the Federal Communications Commission for waging war on the poor as the agency moved forward with a proceeding to deny essential broadband and telephone subsidies to low-income people. 

For nearly 35 years, the Lifeline program has provided discounts on phone service for qualifying low-income consumers. Over the years, the program has been reformed to include other critical communications services, including wireless and broadband. On Jan 27, a new set of changes, adopted back in Oct, will go into effect while the public gets to weigh in on additional proposals to reform the program. All month, we've been publishing articles on broadband adoption. For many people who haven't yet started using broadband internet access service, cost is a major obstacle.

Many schools and libraries rely on the Federal Communications Commission’s E-Rate program to ensure that they can receive affordable, high-speed broadband to connect today’s students with next-generation learning opportunities.

Rep Bill Johnson (R-OH), Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, and local dignitaries met to discuss the importance of broadband access for Southeastern Ohio’s rural communities. In Marietta (OH), Chairman Pai outlined the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) at the roundtable. He said the RDOF would be divided into two phases. Phase 1 will cost $16 billion and will target areas with no broadband access. He said part of phase 2 will be data collection. “We’ll collect information from providers as a map may show an area has service, but they don’t in reality,” he explained.

Here are just a few pieces that we think are worthy of further consideration and some modification before the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) order becomes final.

The major broadband associations have gotten to together to urge the Federal Communications Commission to make changes to the proposed Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.

The problem with using speed alone in assessing the capabilities of broadband networks is that it represents only one product characteristic, and is not necessarily linked with the requirements of the applications commonly used by end consumers.