WTA Highlights NLAD Problems to FCC; Supports Waivers for Small Providers

On May 27, WTA sent a letter to the FCC highlighting technical problems many of its member companies have been encountering “in enrolling eligible households in the National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD)” for the purposes of the new Emergency Broadband Benefits (EBB) Program. Problems occur when:

– the National Verifier and the NLAD appear to re-format some addresses, and then to reject a household if its commonly used address designation does not match

– a customer gives the carrier slightly different information than what he or she submitted to the National Verifier when he or she sought and received a “qualified” designation

– a parent applies for the EBB benefit on the basis of a child’s receipt of free school lunches or a Pell Grant

WTA requests that the FCC make generally available to all affected participating providers and their customers the extensions, any individual waivers or other relief that it provides with respect to the June 1 snapshot date and the June 15 reimbursement certification date for the initial month of EBB-supported services.