The FCC has announced that its National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier (National Verifier) will officially launch in the states of Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee on March 5, 2019, and will ‘soft launch’ in Alaska, American Samoa, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maine, the Northern Mariana Islands, Rhode Island, and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Wednesday, February 6, 2019. The first six states to officially launch the National Verifier did so in October 2018. A National Verifier soft launch means that Eligible Telecommunications Carriers (ETCs) can begin using the system in order to become familiar with it and adjust and test their systems and business processes before using the National Verifier becomes mandatory. Any open re-certification requests for Lifeline subscribers as of February 6, 2019 may continue and must be completed by April 12, 2019. Meanwhile, USAC will begin reverification of existing Lifeline subscribers in these jurisdictions during the soft launch period. Any consumer whose eligibility cannot be verified in this process will be de-enrolled from the program. For the four states fully launching the National Verifier in March 2019, all legacy eligibility processing must terminate by March 5, 2019, USAC will continue verifying subscribers through the transition process initiated during soft launch through December 4, 2019, and all annual re-certifications will not be conducted exclusively by the National Verifier. The National Verifier consumer portal can be found at www.checklifeline.org.
