Wireless Carriers Concerned About Thrust of FCC Lifeline Proposal
Wireless carriers are emerging as leading critics of the FCC’s Lifeline proposal, headed for a vote at the commission's March 31 open meeting. Officials from CTIA and the Competitive Carriers Association have been at the agency in recent days to raise concerns about the proposed Lifeline rules, at least as laid out in a March 10 fact sheet. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a draft order last week that would extend Lifeline support for low-income phone service to broadband coverage, and streamline consumer eligibility verification duties and provider participation requirements (see 1603080024). The wireless groups complain the order would mean the end of support for wireless-only voice service, an increasingly popular offering in an era of cord cutting.
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“Several of the Commission’s proposals will raise prices for wireless Lifeline customers -- the very opposite of the FCC’s intended goal,” CCA President Steve Berry said Thursday in a news release. “Phasing out voice-only wireless services, forcing customers into broadband bundles with unlimited voice service and setting broadband service standards will raise the cost of wireless services significantly to the detriment of consumers who are most cost conscious.” Lifeline modernization in general is a good thing, Berry said: But rules should recognize that wireless, voice-only service “is increasingly important for Lifeline customers, as more and more households rely only on wireless.”
CCA also made its case in a filing, cautioning the agency against eliminating the Lifeline subsidy for wireless voice-only service while retaining a full subsidy for wireline voice-only service. “Supporting wireless, voice-only service under the Lifeline program is increasingly important in light of studies that demonstrate that wireless-only households are ‘the norm,’ especially for low-income populations,” CCA said.
CTIA made similar arguments at the FCC in a recent filing (see 1603160035). CTIA generally supports the FCC’s efforts to expand the Lifeline program to broadband services and to improve the administration of the program, Scott Bergmann, vice president-regulatory affairs, told us Thursday. “We do, however, have significant concerns about the minimum service standards for mobile voice and broadband services proposed in the fact sheet distributed last week,” he said. “The FCC’s approach will likely put the 21st century out of reach for millions of low-income Americans, and does not sufficiently justify eliminating support for critical wireless voice services while continuing to fund wireline voice services.” CTIA is working with member companies “to ensure mobile wireless voice and broadband service remain within reach for low-income consumers,” Bergmann said.
Sprint has also been at the FCC in recent days. Sprint reported on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn: “Sprint expressed its deep concern that certain elements of the draft Order … are contrary to established Commission policy, and would undermine the provision of the voice services that are the core of the current program upon which 14 million end users currently rely.”
“The proposed rules say that if the minimum service standard for broadband is met, then the Lifeline provider may offer any number of voice minutes," an FCC spokesman emailed. "These minimum standards are not phasing out voice from the Lifeline program, but rather are phasing in broadband as an essential element of any Lifeline service. We are confident that trends in the wireless marketplace toward lower voice and data costs, and the program streamlining that Chairman Wheeler and Commissioner Clyburn are proposing, will make for very affordable Lifeline offers."
NARUC reported on a meeting at the FCC between California Public Utilities Commissioner Catherine Sandoval, District of Columbia Public Service Commission Chairman Betty Ann Kane and FCC staffers and commissioners on state oversight of Lifeline. The NARUC commissioners suggested the FCC should “preserve the State’s authority and flexibility to administer the federal Lifeline program in conjunction with State LifeLine Programs irrespective of the services subsidized by the FCC,” said a filing on the meeting. The FCC should allow states to opt out of a national database and the National Eligibility Verifier, but require states that opt out “to implement controls and third-party verification,” NARUC said. Filings were posted in docket 10-90.