The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released an Order granting a partial waiver of FCC and Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) audit requirements for Eligible Telecommunication Carriers (ETCs) that are subject to both the FCC biennial audit and the USAC forensic audit over calendar year 2017. This was in response to a Petition for Waiver filed by US Telecom, CTIA, and ITTA requesting a one-time waiver of the audit requirements. The FCC concluded that the two audit requirements were not wholly duplicative and a waiver of the biennial audit requirement would undermine the FCC’s objectives of assessing overall compliance with the Lifeline Program.
