NaLA Wants DC Circuit to Block Lifeline MSS Order
The National Lifeline Association and Assist Wireless asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for an emergency stay of Monday’s FCC Wireline Bureau order (see 2011170064) raising the Lifeline broadband minimum service standard to 4.5 GB a…
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month. The motion and petition for writ of mandamus (in Pacer) were filed Thursday. The MSS increase from 3 GB to 4.5 GB would take effect Dec. 1, and the emergency motion seeks a ruling on the stay by Nov. 30. The stay request asks the court to block the Dec. 1 increase until it can rule on the accompanying petition for writ of mandamus, which seeks to compel the FCC to act on petitions for reconsideration against the 2016 order that established an automatically increasing MSS. “Absent Court action to force the FCC to render a decision on the 2016 Order reconsideration petitions, [eligible telecommunications carriers], low-income consumers, and the public interest will suffer irreparable harm,” said the petition. NaLA’s filings argue the FCC is dragging its feet on the recon petitions, that allowing the Dec.1 increase will cause a great deal of harm during the pandemic, and that reasoning for the MSS order is arbitrary. Though Monday’s order was enacted at the bureau level and would normally be appealed to the full commission before the courts, NaLA said that would be “futile” because of the looming deadline and the agency’s decision to increase the MSS. The FCC didn’t comment.