The Commission has created an 18 month broadband adoption pilot program for low-income consumers (Pilot Program) to gather data to test how the Lifeline program could be structured to promote the adoption and retention of broadband services by low-income households. The Commission delegated authority to the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) to implement the Pilot Program and authorized up to $25 million to be disbursed directly to eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) for up to 12 months of subsidized broadband service either through bundles of voice and broadband services or as standalone broadband service. The 18 month Pilot Program, which will begin February 1, 2013, includes 3 months to allow ETCs to implement all necessary back-office functions, 12 months of subsidized broadband service, and 3 months for finalization of data collection and analysis.
In response to a April 30, 2012 Public Notice, setting forth application procedures and instituting a deadline of July 2, 2012 for submission of applications, the Bureau received 24 applications, 14 of which were selected for participation in the Pilot Program:
- Frontier Communications Corp. | Broadband Pilot Application | Appendix A | Appendix B | Appendix C | Ohio Lifeline Application | WV Lifeline Application | Supplement | Supplement Appendix A | Supplement Appendix B | Unredacted Version
- Gila River Telecommunications, Inc. | Supplement
- Hopi Telecommunications, Inc. | Supplement | Second Supplement
- Nexus Communications, Inc. | Pilot Application | Supplement
- NTCA | Supplement
- Partnership for a Connected Illinois | Appendix A | Appendix B | Appendix C | Appendix D | Supplement | Supplemental Materials | Additional Supplement
- PR Wireless, Inc. | Amendment
- Puerto Rico Telephone Company, Inc. | Supplement | 2nd Supplement
- T-Mobile Puerto Rico, LLC | Exhibits | Supplements
- TracFone Smartphone Project | Supplement | Second Supplement | Third Supplement
- Troy Cablevision, Inc. | Supplement | Second Supplement
- Vermont Telephone Company, Inc. | Supplement
- Virgin Mobile USA, L.P. | Form | Certification | Certificate of Service | Attachment A | Supplement | Second Supplement
- XChange Telecom Corp. | Supplement
