Queries to the National Lifeline Accountability Database to Begin Soon
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a Public Notice on January 14, 2014, advising all authorized entities, including eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs), that they must begin querying the National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD) in accordance with the schedule established by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), which will commence as early as February 13, 2014. The FCC established the NLAD to detect, prevent, and eliminate duplicative support in the Lifeline program.
States have been placed into six groups, each of which will move through the NLAD migration process on its own schedule. The first group consists of Maryland, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Washington. Beginning with Maryland on February 13, 2014, USAC will start migrating carrier data and will notify carriers once the data are migrated and carriers are "live" in NLAD. Upon notification by USAC, carriers will be required to use NLAD to add, enroll, edit, and de-enroll Lifeline subscribers from that date forward. Additional states will follow on a rolling basis through the first quarter of 2014. More details about USAC's NLAD migration schedule can be found on its website.
ETCs are required to collect and provide to the NLAD the following information for each new and existing Lifeline subscriber:
- The subscriber's full name;
- Full residential address;
- Date of birth;
- Last four digits of the subscriber's Social Security number, or of the subscriber's Tribal Identification number if the subscriber is a member of a Tribal nation and does not have a Social Security number;
- The telephone number associated with the Lifeline service;
- The date on which the Lifeline service was initiated;
- The date on which the Lifeline service was terminated, if it has been terminated;
- The amount of support being sought for that subscriber; and
- The means through which the subscriber qualified for Lifeline.
A copy of the Public Notice is available here.
