NARUC Draft Resolutions Disagree on Lifeline Support

Two NARUC draft telecom resolutions disagree on whether Lifeline should support reseller services. Tuesday, NARUC revealed three draft telecom resolutions on Lifeline and E-911 for its annual meeting Nov. 12-15 in Baltimore. One by Nebraska Public Service Commissioner Crystal Rhoades would urge the FCC to keep providing Lifeline funds to non-facilities-based carriers “because they have been crucial in ensuring that low-income households are connected to telecommunication services.” The FCC sought comment on discontinuing that support in a draft NPRM released as part of a Lifeline package that’s scheduled for vote at commissioners’ Nov. 16 meeting (see 1710270013). The Rhoades draft said such an action would “disconnect millions of low-income households.” Another draft by District of Columbia Public Service Commission Chairman Betty Ann Kane takes the other side. Not requiring federal Lifeline participants to use their own facilities “removes any incentive for companies to invest in and to build voice-only or voice and broadband-capable facilities and, thereby, subverts the Act’s principle of promoting access to advanced telecommunications services as set forth in section 254(b),” it said. The Kane resolution also would support several other FCC tentative decisions from the Lifeline proposal, including to (1) eliminate the stand-alone Lifeline Broadband Provider designation, (2) reverse the agency’s pre-emption of State regulatory authority to designate eligible telecommunications carriers and (3) require that Lifeline broadband service providers must also provide voice services. A third draft resolution, by Colorado Public Utilities Commissioner Wendy Moser, would support federal and state actions to require enterprise communications systems (ECS) “manufacturers, installers, and operators to design and configure ECS to allow direct dialing of 9-1-1, route 9-1-1 calls to the proper PSAP [public service answering point] regardless of the particular location of the extension used to call 9-1-1, provide the PSAP with location information accurate enough for first responders to locate the caller, and to support on-site notification.” Federal requirements shouldn’t preclude state from adding nonconflicting requirements, the draft said.