FCC recasts the Lifeline for low-income households

What’s the most essential communications “Lifeline” for low-income households?

Thirty years ago, when the concept was first implemented, it was a landline phone.

Then in 2008, the federally funded (with your phone bill taxes) Lifeline subsidy service was amended to include mobile phones.

This year, if the just-announced proposal from Federal Communications Commissioners Thomas Wheeler (chairman) and Mignon Clyburn passes muster with the FCC majority, eligible households will also have the option to put their $9.25 monthly communications subsidy toward broadband Internet service, helping close the “digital divide” that Wheeler sees as key to answering “many of our nation’s greatest challenges – issues like income equality, job creation, economic growth, U.S. competitiveness.”

Detailed recently by senior FCC officials, the proposed overhaul of the $2 billion plus (annually) subsidy system aims to encourage competitiveness and lower pricing from service providers seeking those Lifeline dollars. Major phone companies like Verizon and T-Mobile have already been vetted. The new agenda also seems perfectly aligned with Comcast’s means-based $9.95-a-month “Internet Essentials” service that’s been available for several years.

To grease the wheels and cut down on fraud, the Lifeline program will find and fund an independent National Eligibility Verifier to qualify participants electronically, tied to the applicants’ participation in means-tested programs like SNAP, SSI, Medicaid and the Veterans Pension Benefits Program.

Participating Internet service providers will have to deliver a minimum fixed speed of 10 megabits per second (mbps) for downloads and 1 mbps when uploading, with a minimum monthly usage allowance of 150 gigabytes.

Alternately, users may continue to put their Lifeline subsidy toward stand-alone mobile phone service. Through 2019, eligible mobile phone providers will be able to offer just unlimited talk; thereafter plan participants will also be required to include broadband service. To help close the “homework gap,” Lifeline administrators will look most favorably on mobile devices/plans that have not only a broadband component but also built-in Wi-Fi functionality, so a student can wirelessly connect a computer to the Internet through the mobile phone.

According to FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, seven out of 10 teachers now require students to go online to complete homework assignments.

The new guidelines set minimum standards for Lifeline mobile broadband services at 500 megabits per month of 3G data, then increasing to 2 GB per month by the end of 2018.

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 6:10 PM with the headline "FCC recasts the Lifeline for low-income households."