NEWS
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, S.W.
Washington, D. C.  20554
This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action.
See MCI v. FCC. 515 F 2d 385 (D.C. Circ 1974).
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
Nov. 4, 2010 Mark Wigfield, 202-418-0253
Email: mark.wigfield@fcc.gov
FEDERAL-STATE JOINT BOARD AGREES: UNIVERSAL SERVICE PROGRAMS NEED TO 
BETTER SERVE LOW-INCOME PARTICIPANTS AND SUPPORT BROADBAND
Washington, D.C. – State and federal officials today agreed to recommend a package of reforms to 
improve participation in the Lifeline and Link Up programs.
Lifeline and Link Up are two components of the Universal Service Fund’s Low-Income program, which 
helps reduce the cost of phone service and phone installation for families that are eligible for food stamps 
and similar programs.  
Earlier this year, the FCC asked the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service for recommendations 
on how to improve the program given changes that include increasing migration to wireless service and 
the increased importance of broadband. The FCC also asked the Joint Board for suggestions regarding 
the most effective approaches to addressing potential waste, fraud, and abuse in the program while also 
improving its efficiency and reach.
The Joint Board recommended that the FCC:
· Encourage automatic enrollment, triggered when low-income families sign up for other benefits, 
such as food stamps.
· Adopt minimum standards for states and carriers to use to verify a participant’s eligibility, with 
stricter standards allowed, in order to prevent potential waste, fraud, and abuse.
· Seek comment on establishing a centralized national database for certification and verification of 
eligibility to eliminate duplicative claims and speed enrollment, and address potential waste, 
fraud, and abuse.
· Adopt outreach rules for carriers that participate in Lifeline.
· Seek comment on increasing eligibility for the program by allowing households earning 150% or 
less of the federal poverty guidelines to participate, up from the current 135%.  
The Joint Board also urged the Federal Communications Commission to adopt a principle that the 
Universal Service Fund should be used to support networks providing both voice and broadband, 
consistent with the FCC’s National Broadband Plan.  All of the Joint Board’s recommendations will be 
evaluated by the FCC as it works to improve Lifeline and Link Up and reviews recommendations in the 
National Broadband Plan to use universal service to help advance broadband to all Americans.
-FCC-
More information about the Federal-State Board on Universal Service can be found at 
http://www.fcc.gov/wcb/tapd/universal_service/JointBoard/.