Updated: Feb 9, 2018
The Commission has released a letter sent to the Universal Service Administrative Company (“USAC”) by Commissioner Pai, discussing the abuse and fraud riddling the USF Lifeline program. In his letter, Commissioner Pai discusses the recent investigation of Total Call Mobile, recognizing the alleged fraudulent practices by Total Call Mobile, as well as other Lifeline wireless resellers named by Total Call Mobile, and requests that he be sent the following information by May 2, 2016:
- For each of the four Lifeline wireless resellers named by Total Call Mobile sales agents:
- A description of any investigations, audits, or reviews that USAC has conducted on the companies from October 2014 to the present, along with any reports of findings drafted or issued;
- If USAC informed any of the carriers of duplicate enrollments, the number of duplicate enrollments involved and the date on which the carrier de-enrolled them;
- For each study area of each company from October 2014 to the present, a table showing how may subscribers enrolled each month, how many were newly enrolled or transfers from other Lifeline carriers, how many subscribers were accrued as a result of an override of the NLAD’s safeguards, and among subscriber-overrides, how many were attributable to the third-party-independent-verification check, the postal-address check, and the independent-economic-unit check; and
- To the extent USAC knows, how many subscribers relied on SNAP cards or temporary or blank SNAP cards for eligibility verification;
- A list of any Lifeline wireless resellers that overrode the safeguards of the NLAD more than 500 times between October 2014 and the present, and
- An explanation of USAC’s plan for reviewing, auditing, and investigating eligibility documentation retained by Lifeline wireless resellers since February 17, 2016, as well as the results of any such review, audit, or investigation.
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