Puerto Rican Regulator Warns FCC About Lifeline Need, Troubles on Island
FCC efforts to overhaul Lifeline USF mechanisms could run into trouble in Puerto Rico, said a filing by Connected Nation's chief policy counsel on a meeting the chairman of the Telecommunications Regulatory Board of Puerto Rico, two advisers and the…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
counsel had with FCC officials. Lifeline modernization is important for Puerto Rico, which has a broadband adoption rate of 48 percent that is "far lower than any state," the filing said. Only five metropolitan areas in the U.S. have home broadband adoption rates below 50 percent, and three of those are in Puerto Rico, the filing said: "We emphasized strongly that proposed limitations on the eligibility of low-income consumers use to qualify for the program would be devastating for Puerto Rico and create enormous 'qualification gaps,' due to the fact that federal nutrition assistance, school lunch, and other federal assistance programs operate differently in Puerto Rico. The Commission’s effort to modernize Lifeline will not succeed if it does not succeed in Puerto Rico," said the filing, posted Thursday in docket 10-90.