FCC To Reform And Modernize “Lifeline” Program For Low-Income Families

The Federal Communications Commission plans to reform and then modernize the Lifeline program. Lifeline is a system that allows low-income families to take advantage of extremely low phone service rates for landline phones.

According to the FCC Lifeline is a:

“Universal service program that fulfills Congress’s mandate to ensure the availability of communications to all Americans.”

The agencies plans come at a time when phone service has drastically increased for low-income families since 1985. At the beginning of the program 80% of low-income families had phone service through lifeline while today’s number is closer to 92% of all low-income families.

Under the new program the FCC will create several databases and protocols that will help ensure there is no abuse of the carrier program.

One way the FCC plans to combat abuse is by providing an eligibility database from governmental records which would automate eligibility for initial and ongoing Lifeline participants.

According to the commission the move will “reduce the potential for fraud while cutting red tape for consumers and providers.”

Having worked for 15 years in the telecommunications industry I often heard and saw cases in which companies would provide potential Lifeline customers with confusing Lifeline forms only to delay access to the program for weeks, sometimes months on end before “misplacing forms” and making low-income customers start all over again.

The FCC says the program must be revamped and modernized before the end of 2013.

Do you think fixing the lifeline program for low-income families is a long overdue solution for an aging system?