USAC Issues Draft Plan for Creating National Verifier of Lifeline Consumer Eligibility
Universal Service Administrative Co. released a draft National Verifier Plan for the FCC Lifeline low-income telecom subsidy program, which is transitioning coverage to include broadband service and administrative oversight away from Lifeline providers (see 1603310056). USAC solicited comments between Dec.…
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5 and Dec. 30 for consideration in adoption of a plan expected out early next year. "Before it is published, the Final National Verifier Plan will be approved by the Wireline Competition Bureau and the Office of the Managing Director at the FCC," said the 101-slide USAC draft plan, which noted the final plan will be updated every six months during the expected 2017-19 implementation phase. To address what it saw as problems with Lifeline provider verification of consumer eligibility for the program, the FCC in March ordered the creation of a national verifier. The draft plan said the national verifier is to: "Create the Lifeline Eligibility Database (LED), which will be connected to state and federal data sources, to determine eligibility for both initial enrollment and annual recertification; Allow Service Providers, consumers, and state, territory, or tribal government users to check eligibility or enrollment status; and Calculate payments to Service Providers based on data available through National Verifier." The draft outlines initial USAC views on numerous issues in establishing the national verifier: stakeholder engagement, business architecture, data usage, data security and storage, tech systems and tools, organizational structure and staffing, business case, key performance indicators and metrics, risk management and transition management.