The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC or Commission) Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB or Bureau) has announced the updated Lifeline minimum service standards for fixed and mobile speed and data capacity as well as the annual budget for the Lifeline program, as required by the 2016 Lifeline Order. Effective December 1, 2020, the minimum service standard for fixed broadband speed will be 25/3 Mbps while the minimum service standard for fixed broadband data usage will be 1024 GB per month. For mobile services, the minimum service standard speed will be 3G mobile technology and the minimum data capacity will be 11.75 GB per month. For mobile voice services, the minimum voice service standard will be 1,000 minutes per month. The Bureau also announced that the budget for the Lifeline program for calendar year 2021 will be $2,428,227,364.3.
