Today’s Regulatory Mix: FCC Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Released, One-Time Device Reimbursement Process for EBB Program Clarified
FCC Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Released
The FCC released its Fiscal Year 2022 Budget in which the Commission seeks a budget of $387,950,000. This would be a 3.7 percent increase over FY 2021 and includes staff increase of 78. Its top strategic goal is to “pursue policies to help bring affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband to 100 percent of the country.”
EBB Program Clarification Regarding One-Time Reimbursement Process
The FCC issued an order granting a limited waiver of the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program (EBB Program) reimbursement rules in response to petitions filed by Cox Communications, Inc. and the National Lifeline Association. Participating providers offering a connected device will now be able to submit a reimbursement claim for that device even if the subscriber subsequently transfers the benefit to another provider prior to the snapshot date. However, the claim process will be different than the process used in the Lifeline Claims System; USAC will contact affected providers directly after the snapshot date to collect the information and officer certification necessary to validate the provider’s monthly device claims.
In addition, to avoid multiple device reimbursements per household, the National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD) will return a warning message when a provider attempts to enroll a household that has
previously claimed the one-time EBB Program device benefit. NLAD will also block connected device enrollments for a household if USAC has already processed a reimbursement claim for the connected device benefit for that household.
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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.
