The Wireline Bureau released an Order granting the petition of Telrite Corporation (“Telrite”) to extend the Bureau’s temporary waiver of the Lifeline Program’s recertification rules in Puerto Rico and the USVI through April 30, 2018. The Bureau finds good cause to waive for 30 days sections 54.405(e)(4) and 54.401(f) of the Commission’s rules for all eligible telecommunications carriers (“ETCs”) serving Lifeline subscribers residing in Puerto Rico or the USVI whose continued eligibility cannot be verified using the Programa de Asistencia Nutricional (“PAN”) eligibility database and whose anniversary dates fall between April 1, 2018 and April 30, 2018. The recertification process for subscriptions with anniversary dates on or after April 1, 2018 would have begun on February 1, 2018.
ETCs must begin the 60-day notice period by March 1, 2018 for any subscribers whose anniversary dates fall in April for recertification. The Bureau expects that because PAN database is now operational, providers will be able to access that database to recertify those subscribers who anniversary dates fall within the waiver period and whose continued eligibility can be verified through that database. Subscribers who can be recertified through the database are not required to be recertified again until their next anniversary date.
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