Lifeline National Verifier Delay Troubles States

Growing delay in establishing a Lifeline national verifier is worrying some states and put Utah in a difficult situation, where its state eligibility system may terminate before the national system is available, state officials told us this week. Utah eligible telecom providers plan to self-certify consumers starting July 1, though some warned such a process can increase fraud risk.

Universal Service Administrative Co. set standards that “don’t readily intermix with what the states have already done,” Wisconsin Public Service Commission USF Director Jeffrey Richter said in an interview. Getting state agencies to share data isn’t easy and USAC, while transparent in some ways, isn’t engaging state officials for help as much as it could, he said. And an eligible telecom carrier’s filing about USAC not providing application programming interfaces alarmed the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, said NASUCA President Elin Katz.

The FCC is working with the USAC to prepare the national verifier of Lifeline eligibility for launch, with a focus on addressing Federal Information Security Management Act compliance before finalizing dates, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a May 1 letter to Congress (see 1806040070). He said they are trying to minimize impact of delay and are close to data sharing agreements in two more states. That would be in addition to the planned “soft launch” in six states announced Aug. 31 that in December was delayed to “early 2018” (see 1712010042). USAC and the FCC declined comment Thursday.

With the contract for Utah's state eligibility system expiring at month's end, the Utah Public Service Commission is concerned about delay to the national verifier, PSC Telecom Manager Bill Duncan emailed. The FCC in August chose Utah as one of six states for the “soft launch” allowing Lifeline carriers to begin using the national verifier while still able to employ current processes. “Utah has always used the Utah Department of Workforce Services for lifeline verification,” Duncan emailed. “Based on representations that the national verifier would be available, the PSC terminated the contract with Workforce Services after June 30, 2018.” The commission will require ETCs to self-certify until the national system is working, he said. “The PSC has in the past been concerned with the potential for fraud” with self-certification but seems to have no choice, he said.

“CenturyLink will temporarily change to a self-certification process for Lifeline in Utah starting July 1 until the national verifier is operational,” as directed by the Utah PSC, a spokeswoman said. Frontier Communications is "monitoring the PSC’s review and will work to implement any changes necessary," its spokeswoman said. The PSC has a technical conference Wednesday with providers about the process. “The PSC has been in contact with the FCC and USAC and explained the difficulties putting the soft and hard launch schedules on hold has, and will, cause Utah Lifeline customers and ETCs,” said a May 17 notice of the meeting.

Self-certification could leave Lifeline vulnerable to fraud, said Richter. When Pai directed USAC to implement safeguards to reduce Lifeline abuse, in a July 11 letter last year (see 1707110051), the chairman cited a GAO report saying the auditor couldn’t confirm if 36 percent of Lifeline subscribers participated in qualifying benefit programs stated on their applications or recorded by Lifeline providers. “Self-certification will reintroduce the problems that precipitated the GAO audit of the waste, fraud and abuse in the federal Lifeline program in the first place,” the Wisconsin official said.

States Concerned

“If the issues with a national system cannot be resolved soon, it will create administrative burdens and continued uncertainty,” emailed Michigan Public Service Commission Chair Sally Talberg.

“We need to ensure that USAC gets this verification system established and is able to provide the necessary tools for accountability in the Lifeline program,” Talberg said. Her agency is “committed to working with USAC on a verification system that is comprehensive and convenient to use,” she said. Michigan’s system “demonstrates that a verification system can be done in a way that is beneficial for Lifeline customers and providers,” she said.

“The delays are frustrating but it’s better to do it right than fast,” emailed Nebraska PSC Commissioner Crystal Rhoades. “I’m glad USAC is committed to getting it done correctly.”

States don’t move quickly to modify their processes and it’s not easy getting agreements with the state agencies that manage eligible programs because of those agencies’ security concerns, said Richter. Other Wisconsin agencies trusted the PSC because it’s a state agency, but “they’re going to laugh” when they learn the federal government wants access, said Richter, saying he doesn’t know how USAC is “getting around some of these restrictions on access to these databases.” It took two years for the PSC, even as a state agency, to get the Wisconsin Department of Revenue to agree to give access to data in a “double-blind system,” he said. Agreement is possible, but it won’t happen overnight, he said.

“There’s quite a bit of transparency, but the problem is it’s not a real dialogue,” said Richter, who participates in monthly USAC calls with states about Lifeline. USAC has “canned presentations” about what it's doing but isn’t giving state Lifeline experts enough technical detail about how the national system will interface with state systems, or divulging what logjams they may be encountering, he said.

Richter worries the national verifier eventually will be considered “good enough” and roll out with flaws that hurt consumers, he said. Richter would rather keep using Wisconsin’s system but understands other state processes may be inefficient and be more prone to errors, he said. The official suggested starting with states that don’t have working systems and let states with good ones like Wisconsin share best practices.

A Q Link Wireless filing about one alleged flaw in the national verifier “raises serious concerns about changes to the enrollment process for Lifeline,” NASUCA’s Katz emailed Thursday. The ETC told FCC aides last week that the national verifier may deny millions access to mobile broadband because USAC reversed course on plans to include APIs permitting carrier-assisted online verification and enrollment (see 1805300025). “If the filing is accurate, the changes would add additional barriers to enrollment that NASUCA would oppose,” Katz said.

"The FCC and states should “focus on ways to make the Lifeline program better meet the immediate needs of Lifeline eligible households for affordable voice and broadband internet access services,” said Katz: They should “minimize, not increase, barriers to enrollment.”