FCC Clarifies High-Cost Carrier Duties on Lifeline Stand-Alone Broadband Discounts
FCC staff ruled that eligible telecom carriers must allow Lifeline-eligible customers to apply their low-income USF discounts to stand-alone broadband internet access service (BIAS) if the ETCs offer such service and are subject to USF "high-cost public interest broadband obligations."…
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The clarification renders moot a petition for temporary waiver that was filed by NTCA and WTA, which was dismissed, said an order in docket 11-42 from the Wireline Bureau listed in Monday's Daily Digest. "ETCs that do not have a standalone BIAS offering in areas where they receive high-cost support are not required to create a new standalone Lifeline BIAS offering" under the FCC's March Lifeline overhaul order, the new order said. "Rather, recipients of high-cost support may meet their broadband public interest obligations by offering BIAS as part of a bundle with voice or on a standalone basis, at the carrier’s discretion." But the bureau said if an ETC offers stand-alone broadband in an area where it receives high-cost support, it must allow eligible consumers to apply their Lifeline discount to that service.