Week ahead: FCC looks to expand phone subsidy program

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to advance a proposal to offer subsidies for Internet service to people with low incomes.

The proposal, to be considered Thursday, is one of its biggest and most contentious initiatives since the commission approved net neutrality rules earlier this year.

The agency will seek comment on a plan to expand its Lifeline program, which currently offers subsidies for phone service. Under the proposal, low-income individuals would also have the option of using the funds for broadband Internet service.

{mosads}“Our nation’s enduring promise is opportunity for all, and helping financially struggling Americans access basic communications empowers individuals to pursue new opportunities and build better lives,” FCC Commissioner Tom Wheeler wrote in a blog post last month.

Many Republicans want broad reforms to Lifeline before even thinking about expanding the program. They point to a Government Accountability Office report this year that found the program could be “rather inefficient” at increasing telephone subscribers.

The commission implemented a number of reforms in 2012 to the decades-old program expanding it to cover mobile phone service. Those changes led to widespread abuse, spurring opponents to derisively dub it the “Obama phone” program.

Wheeler’s proposal will also seek comment on a number of other reforms to the program. For example, he wants to remove the burden on telecommunications carriers to judge whether customers are eligible for the program — a process that led to some of the abuse.

The commission will also vote to give phone companies approval to offer phone-blocking technology to their customers in an attempt to crack down on robocalls, as well as to make it easier for people to revoke consent to receive robocalls. It would also strengthen the definition of so-called autodialers, which can churn through numerous telephone numbers at the same time but are banned from calling mobile phones.

On Capitol Hill, the Communications and Technology Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will host a hearing about FirstNet — the beleaguered and nascent communications network for first-responders — on Tuesday.

It’s been a bruising several months for FirstNet. A December report from the Department of Commerce’s inspector general found that the group had not properly dealt with potential conflicts of interest among its board members. And a Government Accountability Office study in April found that the organization was making key hires too slowly and expressed concerns about its independence.

Some first-responders have also said they are not properly being kept in the loop on the project.

“We’re beginning to hear from first responder groups about concerns they have as this goes forward. Which is natural — it’s a big project,” subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said recently.

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