The FCC has adopted an Order which grants a request by the State of Michigan’s Public Service Commission (Michigan PSC) to receive an additional six months to implement the streamlined federal Lifeline eligibility criteria in Sections 54.400(j) and 54.409(a) of the FCC’s rules. The Michigan PSC has received continual waivers since 2016 and its current waiver is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2018. The FCC’s extension will last through June 28, 2019. This extra time will allow the Michigan PSC and USAC additional time to complete work necessary to establish an automated connection between a Michigan PSC eligibility database and the National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier that will comply with the federal Lifeline eligibility criteria. In the Order, the FCC clarified that during this extension, Michigan ETCs may continue to use existing Lifeline enrollment and recertification forms and are not required to use the universal forms to verify or recertify the eligibility of Michigan consumers for the federal Lifeline benefit.
