In 2016, the FCC adopted its Lifeline Modernization Order, in which it introduced Lifeline subsidies for the provision of broadband services, and imposed graduated minimum service standards for Lifeline-supported broadband...more
After some months of delay, the FCC has launched the second phase in its plans to provide significant subsidies over the next decade to fund the expansion of mobile wireless services to unserved rural areas of the country....more
Last Friday, the FCC filed a motion with the DC Circuit to put a hold on the pending appeal of a portion of its 2016 Lifeline order finding that the FCC—and not the states—had sole jurisdiction to grant Lifeline broadband...more
The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau recently granted nine Lifeline Broadband Provider (“LBP”) designations: four on December 1, 2016 and five more on January 18, 2017, as part of its effort launched last year by...more
As was expected after the FCC’s sweeping Lifeline rule changes, several parties filed Petitions for Reconsideration of the controversial Lifeline Modernization Order. Petitioners, consisting of trade associations, ETCs, and...more
Last week, the FCC finally released the full, 224-page text of its controversial and anxiously awaited Lifeline Modernization Order, which was approved by a bitterly divided, party-line 3-2 vote on March 31. As we advised in...more
On March 8, 2016, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn unveiled a fact sheet summarizing their plan to “re-orient” the Lifeline program towards broadband service and a recap of the existing reforms...more
Last Friday, staff in the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau issued a report summarizing the results of the FCC’s Lifeline broadband pilot program. The program was designed to determine how the Lifeline program might address...more