The FCC has opened an inquiry to explore how the FCC’s Lifeline and Affordable Connectivity Programs might help domestic and sexual violence survivors. The Commission is requesting comment on how the Commission might help to protect survivors’ identities from an abuser, when calls to hotlines may appear on call logs for example, and how the FCC might confirm an individual’s status as a survivor and prove financial hardship in order to gain access to the programs. The FCC is launching this proceeding in order to evaluate how it may modify these programs to better support survivors of domestic or sexual violence, dating violence, intimate partner violence, human trafficking, or stalking.
