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Surprise

Lifeline National Verifier Operational in 6 States After FISMA OK

The Lifeline national verifier is operational in Utah and five other “soft launch” states, the FCC announced Monday. Universal Service Administrative Co. got Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) accreditation Friday, said USAC Communications Director Jaymie Gustafson in a Monday interview. The reveal surprised observers, coming less than a week after the USAC official told a Utah Public Service Commission workshop the release date was unknown. Growing delay brought scrutiny from states and others (see 1806070022), as has an FCC proposal to cut Lifeline support to resellers (see 1806150048).

The national verifier online portal opened Monday for eligible telecom carriers in Colorado, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, the FCC said. "ETCs may begin using the National Verifier for eligibility determinations but may also continue to use existing eligibility determination processes,” and “will allow ETCs to become familiar with the National Verifier online portal before use of the National Verifier becomes mandatory,” the agency said. Consumers won’t be able to access the national verifier until the hard launch later, it said.

With a release date hazy last week, USAC announced interim plans for Utah, which terminated its verification contract in the belief the national verifier would be ready by June 30 (see 1806140048). Friday, USAC got FISMA accreditation, “which allowed us to launch the national verifier,” Gustafson said. “USAC and the FCC and the state service providers have all done a lot of work to get this national verifier up and running for launch. … We know that the delay has been challenging and have been working through to try to get it released as soon as the accreditation process was complete.”

Utah wireline ETCs may use the digital national verifier portal or instead choose the paper mail-in process outlined at last week’s workshop, between July 1 and the hard launch, Gustafson said. The online process provides a “much quicker” and “real-time” decision on eligibility compared with snail mail, she said: The paper process was used before, “so we wanted to make sure they had both processes available to them.”

This is the first I've seen of it,” Utah PSC Telecom Manager Bill Duncan emailed Monday. “I have no idea what happened.” Wisconsin PSC USF Director Jeff Richter said he first learned of the launch Monday from a USAC staffer. "I’m glad they got it going so providers in those states can start testing it," Richter said. Wisconsin isn't part of the soft launch.

Launching the long-delayed National Verifier is a very positive development, but unfortunately, is being overshadowed by the erosion of the ability of resellers to participate in the Lifeline program, including the possibility that they will be entirely eliminated from the program,” emailed Davis Wright attorney Danielle Frappier, who represents Lifeline providers. “Resellers are typically the only providers in a given area who are really interested in serving the Lifeline-eligible population.”

Q Link Wireless called the launch a first step toward "erecting new barriers to wireless broadband Lifeline service for rural Americans," absent changes. "Unless the FCC directs USAC to modify the way that the National Verifier interacts with carriers, rural consumers will have an extremely difficult time gaining access to wireless broadband Lifeline services once the USAC reaches the mandatory 'hard launch,'" emailed Q Link, which says it's the No. 3 provider. "Fortunately, those changes can be made quickly before 'hard launch' and will actually save USAC money. The FCC should direct these changes -- called Application Programming Interfaces or APIs -- to be made immediately."

The National Lifeline Association also backed an API, while applauding the FCC and USAC on the launch. "We are committed to working toward a successful hard launch that includes a service provider API that will help root out excess costs and ineligible enrollment attempts while curbing data integrity and security risks and making it easier to reach Lifeline eligible subscribers in rural areas," said Chairman David Dorwart in a statement.