$33 Million in New Proposed FCC Fines for Alleged Duplicates

Friday evening, the FCC Enforcement Bureau issued another round of proposed fines totalling $33 million for alleged internal duplicates, which involve the same subscriber receiving Lifeline support from the same ETC.  On September 30, the FCC proposed $14.4 million in fines against five ETCs.  The new Notices of Apparent Liability ("NALs") were issued to three additional ETCs:  Conexions, i-wireless and True Wireless.  The ETCs have 30 days to respond or, alternatively, pay the proposed fines. In the near future, the prevention and elimination of duplicate support in most states will be a function of the National Lifeline Accountability Database.  The database is set to launch in a five states in December 2013, with the remaining states coming online in early 2014.