Regulators want to expand the Lifeline Assistance Program to include broadband Internet access
WASHINGTON – The Federal Communications Commission is seeking comment on its plan to expand the Lifeline subsidy program to include broadband Internet services in addition to the existing wired and wireless voice services.
Civic leaders of various political stripes and from states as diverse as New York, Maryland, Texas and Oregon are raising concerns over how the current subsidy program is structured.
Maria del Carmen Arroyoa, a Democratic member of the New York City Council, told the FCC, “Broadband subsidies should not come at the expense of traditional phone services. [The proposed subsidy] would not be sufficient to support broadband services, or a bundle of voice and broadband services.”
Arroyoa and others worry that the subsidy funding level is too low to sufficiently offset the cost of broadband services, or may force consumers to choose between landline service and broadband.
Though cognizant of the concerns, the FCC is committed to updating the Lifeline Assistance Program.
FCC spokesman Mark Wigfield, looking back at three decades of Lifeline subsidies, said, “The commission has concluded it is time for a fundamental, comprehensive restructuring of the program to meet today’s most pressing communications needs: access to broadband. Broadband has become essential to participation in modern society, offering access to jobs, education, health care, government services and opportunity.”
The FCC notes that while 95% of households earning more than $150,000 per year have broadband, in households earning under $25,000 per year the number drops to 48%. Lifeline, which began as a President Ronald Regan-era subsidy to help low-income people afford the household communication systems necessary to find work, has been successfully modernized before.
Despite some instances of fraud, the subsidy has allowed for the creation of the Track Phone program in which carriers price their service at the rate of the subsidy, effectively allowing millions of Americans access to affordable wireless communications.
The movement for reform has won the support of lobbyists and the industry, with James W. Cicconi, a SEVP of AT&T telling the The New York Times that he sees Internet access as “the more important Lifeline technology for the 21st century.”
Cicconi oversaw the creation of the Lifeline Assistance Program when he worked in the Reagan administration.
Scott Bergman, VP of regulatory affairs for CTIA, made that group’s case: “Over the nearly three decades since its creation, the Lifeline program has served an important purpose by enabling low-income consumers to access essential communications services.”
