Pa. PUC Lets T-Mobile Relinquish Lifeline ETC
Back with a full complement of commissioners, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission voted 5-0 Thursday to let T-Mobile exit federal Lifeline in Pennsylvania. In the unanimous voice vote, PUC members granted T-Mobile’s Sept. 1 petition to relinquish eligible telecom carrier…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
designation for low-income support effective Dec. 31. “We find that T-Mobile has given appropriate and sufficient notice to us regarding its planned abandonment,” said the PUC order in docket P-2011-2275748. T-Mobile’s 90-day written notice and other planned communications will give Lifeline customers “detailed information” and “ample time to obtain service from an alternative Lifeline provider operating in that same geographic region,” it said. T-Mobile on Sept. 30 sent the PUC a copy of a letter notifying customers that the carrier was ending Lifeline participation. T-Mobile’s petition noted the carrier provides “a variety of low-cost service plans” and subsidiary Assurance Wireless and MetroPCS participate in the federal affordable connectivity program. Thursday’s meeting was the PUC’s first since April 16, 2020 with commissioners in all five seats. The Pennsylvania Senate last week confirmed Katie Zerfuss, deputy secretary for legislative affairs for Gov. Tom Wolf (D), and Stephen DeFrank, former chief of staff for state Sen. Lisa Boscola (D), and reconfirmed Commissioner John Coleman, whose term had expired Oct. 1 (see 2210190042). “Retirement for two weeks was great,” remarked Coleman at the livestreamed meeting. The PUC elected DeFrank as vice chairman Friday, said Chairman Gladys Brown Dutrieuille. T-Mobile didn’t comment.