Lifeline and Link Up Reform and Modernization, Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, Lifeline and Link Up

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) takes immediate action to address potential waste in the universal service Lifeline and Link Up program (Lifeline/Link Up or the program) by preventing duplicative program payments for multiple Lifeline-supported services to the same individual. On March 4, 2011, the Commission released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to reform and modernize Lifeline/Link Up. In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Commission underscored its commitment to eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in Lifeline/Link Up and presented a comprehensive set of proposals to better target support to needy consumers and maximize the number of Americans with access to modern communications services. To ensure that Lifeline support is limited to the amount necessary to provide access to telecommunications service to qualifying low-income consumers, we adopt measures to prevent, detect and resolve duplicative Lifeline claims for the same consumer. The near-term reforms we adopt here will reduce waste in the Fund and give the Commission flexibility to modernize the Low-Income Program in order to align it with changes in technology and market dynamics, such as the proposal we currently are reviewing to support broadband pilot projects for low-income consumers.