REALTIME FILE

ATAP

04.15.21

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>> LORI: Thank you for joining the session will be starting in a few minutes.

We have cameras and microphones turned off for the session.

They will only be available for presenters.

Also, the session will be recorded and we will be posting the recording and making slides available after the session.

Thank you for attending today's session and we will start shortly.

>> LORI: Good afternoon everyone, welcome to the increasing connectivity with emergency broadband benefit webinar.

Before we get started today, we would like to cover some housekeeping items.

Today's webinar is being recorded and will be available early next week at ACL.gov\commit to connect.

We will be setting aside time at the end of the webinar for questions and answers with the presenters.

Please type your questions into the chat box throughout the session.

The phone lines have been muted to reduce background noise and cameras are off except for the presenters and interpreters.

We have approximately 3000 people registered for today's webinar.

We would like to thank you for your interest in today's topic and your service to people with disabilities, older adults and caregivers.

My name is Lori Gerhard and work in the United States demonstration for community living.

It's an operating division within the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

I leader office of interagency innovation.

The administration for community living's mission is to help older adults, people with disabilities and caregivers live full lives in the community.

Each year we serve over 10 million older adults, people with disabilities and caregivers during nationwide aging and disability networks.

These networks are available in 56 states and territories have more than 1300 access points and include over 20,000 service providers.

One of the network's many strengths is the local community organizations are staffed and operated by the people that live in those communities.

People living in communities are more aware of the services and resources available in the community and the needs of their neighbors.

They know the culture of the community, the formal and informal influential leaders in the community and the greatest strengths of the community as well as the greatest needs.

We accomplish our work through partnerships at the local, state and national level.

We are pleased to be partnering with our colleagues at the federal communications commission and a T3, the state assisted technology technical center 2 to to provide today's webinar.

We would also like to thank the national organizations and federal agencies which you just saw on the first slide.

That included the office of Assistant Secretary for health at the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Communications Commission and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

We also partner with national organizations and we would like to thank them.

You can see the national and state organizations that have joined together with us to develop to commit the connect campaign.

We are people of all ages experience social isolation and are loneliness.

Nearly 25 Americans over 65 and over are considered to be socially isolated.

The objective state of Acute social relationships or social contact with others.

43 percent of those 60 and over report feeling lonely.

Harmful health outcomes have been associated with isolation and loneliness including premature the, high risk for developing dementia, heart failure and stroke an increased risk of hospitalizations.

According to an AARP study an additional $6.7 billion is spent annually on Medicare social isolation.

We learned recently in a 2021 poll the national Association of agencies on aging who administers the engaged resource center funded by the administration for community living, 77 percent of responding area agencies on aging indicated that social isolation was a top priority for older adults and their communities.

Additionally, 52 percent of those respondents named limited or no access to technology as a pressing concern.

The commit to connect campaign is a national campaign to combat social isolation, loneliness and all communities across the country.

Through the coordinating center to address social isolation which is operated by the AARP foundation and governed by a diverse group of organizations.

Many of them, you saw on the slides earlier.

We are implementing an approach to work together to address social isolation and loneliness across the country.

The approach includes providing educational webinars like the one today, connecting people to available social engagement programs and technologies in developing a nationwide network of champions to address social isolation.

This nationwide network will enable all of us to join together to connect and engage those that are socially isolated and poor lonely.

Please visit the connect commit to connect website to learn more about this campaign and sign up to receive emails and to share your social engagement programs and technologies and get involved.

Additionally, stay tuned for upcoming webinars related to social isolation and loneliness within the next two months.

Please be on the lookout for registration information via an ACL email blast.

Connectivity is an essential part of everyday life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I connected device with Internet access provides a gateway to social engagement with family and friends while practicing physical distancing.

It provides a gateway to healthcare services, remote work and school and supplies and meals.

Emergency broadband benefit is a Federal Communications Commission program that helps households struggling to pay for Internet services during the pandemic.

This new benefit will connect eligible households to jobs, critical health services and virtual classrooms.

Today's webinar will feature an overview of the emergency broadband benefit including what it is, who is eligible, how it works and how to help people enroll.

Now I would like to introduce our presenter and colleague Mr. Eduard Bartholme who is the associate bureau chief at the Federal Communications Commission.

I will turn things over to Ed to give us started.

>> EDUARD: Thanks Lori.

You can't see my screen, please let me know.

I just want to start by saying thank you to ACL for the opportunities which present on today's webinar.

Thank you for ATAP to hosting us on the platform and thank you to everyone who is joined to learn more about the emergency broadband benefit program.

We will get into the details on that here shortly.

My name is Ed Eduard Bartholme and I'm the associate bureau chief at the FCC.

I'm here to share more about this program that Congress establish in the consolidated appropriations act of 2021.

It's a 3.2 billion dollar temporary program designed to assist households struggling to pay for Internet service during the pandemic.

Who is the FCC?

We are an independent federal agency responsible for implanting and enforcing America's communication laws and regulations.

We regulate communications by radio, television, phone, satellite and cable.

The tools we all used to stay connected.

I am the associate bureau chief and consumer governmental affairs Bureau.

We develop policy and implement the FCC's consumer focus initiatives.

We service the agencies connection to the American consumer.

Our mission includes disability rights, consumer education, outreach to states local and tribal governments as well as consumer complaint disposition.

As Lori mentioned, broadband is no longer nice to have but it's needed to have.

It allows students to connect to classrooms individuals to work remotely and it can access to family, friends, telehealth services and other critical resources.

The FCC is committed to ensuring everyone in this country has access to broadband services including our most vulnerable populations.

The new emergency broadband benefit will connect eligible households to jobs, critical healthcare services and virtual classrooms.

Let's talk a little about what the benefit provides.

The benefit provides eligible households with up to a $50 per month discount for broadband services.

In up to $75 per month discount for eligible households located on tribal lands.

It also provides a one time discount about $200 for laptop, desktop computer or tablet purchase through participating provider if the household contributes more than $10 and less than $50 towards the device purchase.

Emergency broadband benefit is limited to one monthly service discount and one device discount per eligible household.

The benefit is not the direct consumer benefit.

The discount off of the monthly service bill and/or device.

The service provider seeks reimbursement directly from the program.

You can learn more about what qualifies as tribal lands and what households would be eligible for the enhanced benefit and get emergency broadband.org.

It's important to note - the provider that the consumer is receiving their monthly service discount from is the same provider they must use to seek or get access to the connected device through this program.

You cannot shop for it connected device through a separate provider.

It has to be the same provider you using for your services.

Who qualifies for the benefit?

Household is eligible if any member of the household has received a Pell grant in the current award year, participates in the free or reduced school lunch or breakfast program, that includes if they participated in the previous school year.

We know many students are doing remote school this year and may not be going into the classroom.

Families may not be reenrolled in free and reduced school lunch programs.

Either last school year or the school year will make your household eligible.

If the household has a member who experience a substantial loss of income since February and the household had a total income in 2020 below and 89,000 for single filers or hundred 98,000 for joint filers.

Remember the household meets the eligibility criteria for participating providers existing low income or COVID-19 programs.

There is one other eligibility criteria category that I will talk about.

I want to make sure it's clear that a member of the household only needs to meet one of these categories.

They don't need to be eligible for all of the categories listed to qualify for the program.

As long as somebody meets the one eligibility criteria the household is eligible for the program.

The other category I mentioned a minute ago is qualifying for the lifeline program.

His many people may be aware, the lifeline program is a long-running federal program that lowers the monthly cost of phone or Internet service, eligible customers can get up to a $9.25 discount on their service bill and it's up to $34 on tribal lands.

To qualify for lifeline, household has to meet income that's less than 135 percent of federal poverty guidelines or a member of household needs to participate in certain federal assistance programs.

Supplemental nutrition assistance or snap, Medicaid, supplemental Social Security income, federal public housing assistance, veteran programs or recognize travel assistant programs would also qualify a household as well.

Important to note that current lifeline participants or anyone who is currently receiving lifeline benefit is automatically eligible and they do not need to apply separately for the emergency broadband benefit.

They will need to select a provider and an eligible emergency broadband benefit service plan in order to receive the benefit.

Lifeline providers cannot automatically enroll their customers.

The consumer needs to provide affirmative consent of where they can be enrolled.

You can receive both the lifeline and emergency broadband benefits at the same time or they can be applied to the same qualifying service or they can be applied separately to a lifeline service in a separate emergency broadband benefit service with the same or different provider.

For example, an eligible household could have a lifeline supported mobile phone service in a separate home broadband service that supported through the emergency broadband benefit.

Some additional details about the program.

Enrollment is expected to begin by the end of April.

In the next couple weeks the program will open for enrollment.

The benefit is a temporary program.

Emergency broadband benefit is a temporary program developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The program will end once the program funds are exhausted or six months after the department and Health and Human Services declares an end to the pandemic.

Whichever occurs first.

The program is administered by the universal service administration company also known as U.S. AC.

They administer the lifeline program and they will host the application portal and the get emergency broadband or consumer portal.

The consumer facing website with information and it's also where the online application and printed versions of the application will be for consumers to find.

We'll talk more about that when we get to the enrollment section.

Who are participating providers?

The program is open to all broadband providers.

Not just those currently offering line services.

There are both fixed and mobile broadband providers who have signed up to participate.

Fixed broadband provides service to a home or single location.

Includes cable, fiber optic, DSL and fixed wireless services.

Mobile broadband services are device-based and available throughout the coverage area.

Similar to cell phone service and how you look at the map and see in the area where your home or where you work are covered by the service from that service provider.

You can find a list of participating broadband providers broken down by state and territory at FCC.gov /emergency -broadband -benefit-providers.

You can contact participating providers to learn more about which service plans they are offering as part of the program with the monthly costs and the speed associated with the plans.

That's information you can find directly from the provider.

Not all providers that are participating plan to offer connected devices through the program.

Right now, about 10 percent of participating providers have elected to also provide connected devices as part of their participation in the emergency broadband benefit program.

What is a household?

You may have noticed a number of times during the presentation I have talked about households being eligible and members of the household making the household eligible.

How are we defining a household?

Household is a group of people who live together and share money.

Even if they are not related to each other.

People live together and do not share money they are two or more households.

If you live together and share money you are one household.

If you don't look together or don't share money you are two or more households.

Household can qualify because of eligible dependents children or older adults that live in the household.

Recent data showing that there are more multigenerational households currently the previous point in history.

Any member of the household can make the whole household qualify.

Households within multiunit dwellings such as apartment buildings where the land lord or property manager is paid a fee for Internet may enroll in the benefit if they otherwise qualify.

It's important here to know households where that's the situation you need to talk to the property manager or landlord and asked that they work with the broadband service provider to learn more about the program and how they enroll are eligible residents.

A number of the questions that came in before the webinar focused on the specific issue.

I know it's an important topic for this audience and I wanted to go a little deeper here before moving onto the next slide and hopefully address some of the questions that were sent in advance.

Obviously, if there's something I don't cover please add it to the chat and Laurie and others will help make sure I get a chance to speak to those issues when we get to the question section.

Multiunit dwellings and managed facilities like assisted living facilities, nursing homes.

We understand that people in those situations also need access to broadband and they may qualify based on the program's eligibility criteria to receive emergency broadband benefit.

In order to make sure they could participate, the order talk specifically about the situation.

It is termed bulk billing.

The way to set up is a portion household was paying to the landlord or property manager for service is eligible for the emergency broadband benefit if the services provided by a participating provider.

What that means is if you live in a facility where the entire facility is getting service through participating EBV provider and the facility charges each resident or each household unit within the facility $10 per month or $20 per month or $30 per month up to $50 to cover the amount would be per month up to the maximum would be the benefit which is $50 unless it's located in tribal lands and that 75.

That amount can be offset by the emergency broadband benefit.

It would not be offset directly through the consumer applying.

The landlord or property manager would have to be involved in collecting consent and working with a participating provider to aggregate the number of eligible households within their unit and then work with the provider to determine that discount.

Households would still need to apply to make sure they are eligible.

The landlord, property manager, facility organizer, however the relevant party is there would need to be involved to get this set up.

There is a household worksheet and that will be available to assist households in determining eligibility.

We know that it's not always clear.

For example, you may live with roommates or share some bills but you may not share income.

This worksheet will walk you through different scenarios like that help you determine if you are part of another household or if you're in your own household.

That worksheet will be posted on get emergency broadband.

Work.

Option one is to apply through service provider.

You can apply at getemergencybroadband.org.

Some providers, including those that have existing low cost programs or COVID programs may have alternative verification processes that were approved and can be used to enroll eligible households directly.

Other providers will be helping consumers through the national verifier and use acts.

Online application process and we will go into more detail about each of these in a minute.

One option is applying directly through provider.

Another is to apply through the use act directly at getemergencybroadband.org.

The third option is to apply by mail.

I will talk more about that in detail in a second.

Enrolling through provider you you can contact the service provider and find a list of participating providers today at FCC.gov /emergency-broadband-benefit-providers.

The service provider can assist the consumer with applying through the national verifier service provider portal.

It's important to note that if they are going to provide assistance needs to be done in person.

They have to be with the person they are helping or that they are walking through the application process in person.

As I mentioned a minute ago, there are service providers that can take information over the phone or through other ways to get people enrolled.

If you find a service provider you're interested in that participating can reach out to them directly to learn more about what options they may have for enrolling you in the emergency broadband benefit.

Applying directly all live online, if you visit getemergencybroadband.org you will see a navigation menu that says how to apply and I will give you instructions on how to complete electronic online applications.

That's not available currently but will become available when the program opens for enrollment later this month.

You will fill out an online form for those of you who have worked with people to get them enrolled in lifeline or have been through the lifeline process yourselves, this will look very familiar.

The forms are very similar to what is used in the lifeline program and involves the national verifier and identity and information.

It has feel free to fill out and indicate which of the eligible programs or assistance programs you have participated in that make you eligible for the emergency broadband benefit.

Once you do all of that, most of the time you get all the automatic approval through the online process.

After you receive the eligibility determination you can then contact the service provider and let them know that you are interested in enrolling in the plan you want to sign up for and they will get you started with having access to service and the monthly discount on your bill.

As I mentioned before, the third option is to apply by mail.

You can download and print the paper application from getemergencybroadband.org.

Participating providers may also supply consumers with paper applications.

If you are in a navigator role or someone who is assisting people signing up you can print out paper applications and make them available to people to fill out you can mail the completed application to emergency broadband support center.

That is PO Box 7081, London, Kentucky 40742.

To help with making sure your paper application is processed in a timely fashion it's a good idea to include any supporting documents to prove eligibility.

Also, the household worksheet.

That way they will have everything they need to get your application process.

When we talk about including supporting documents it's important to remember you should always mail copies of documents.

Never mail originals of the document.

When you apply for the emergency broadband benefit using the online benefit they will try to confirm your information automatically.

If for some reason they can't do that or if you are mailing in an application it's a good idea to provide additional documentation.

If you do the online process USA C will indicate specifically what documentation they need to finalize and get your application approved when you are mailing and things.

It's a good idea to include it from the start.

You can find the full list of examples of what types of documentation they accept and what documentation specifically supports which category of eligibility at getemergencybroadband.org /how - how to apply / shows-you-qualify current income statement from your employer or paycheck stub.

Social Security statement of benefits, veteran administration statement of benefits.

Unemployment or Workmen's Comp. statements.

Pell grants which is a category that was not previously part of the lifeline program, but it's new to the emergency broadband benefit program.

One option there is the department of education sending an email about the emergency broadband benefit program to Pell grant award recipients.

That email can be used to prove eligibility.

For applicants that are applying based on a child participating in the school lunch or breakfast program through a community eligibility school, that's a provision that says based on income demographics of the area the school serves the entire school gets free or reduced lunch.

Each household does not have to separately apply for and receive the benefit.

Students and families that are in those school districts are eligible as part of being recipients of free or reduced school lunch.

National verifier will have a list of schools that participate in community eligibility provision and people that qualify under that will be able to select the school from that list as part of their online application.

You can also send in the school award letter that shows that you are part of the free or reduced lunch program to support your application that way.

I wanted to touch on a couple of important consumer protections that are included as part of the program next.

One thing to note upfront, eligible households can't be excluded from receiving the emergency broadband benefit from a participating provider based on having a prior debt with that participating provider.

If they have an overdue bill or they are a few months behind on their bills that can exclude them from receiving the emergency broadband benefit as a discount on their monthly service bills from that same provider.

Looking towards how the program will wind down mention this is a temporary program and it will end either when the funds run out or six months after the end of the pandemic has been declared by HHS.

The order does contain some important protections for consumers so that they don't experience bill shock when the program closes out.

Dissipating providers must give notice about the last date or billing cycle that the full benefit will apply to the consumer's bill and the date or billing cycle that a partial benefit will apply to the bill in addition to information about the cost of the broadband service after the program ends.

A provider would need to say in the month of June, instead of the full $50 discount you only get $40 discount.

In the month of July you will get no discount in the price of service at that point will be X dollars per month.

Households will need to opt in or request to continue broadband service with the provider.

They don't opt in or select a new service plan with the provider the broadband service will end once the program ends.

Even if they have broadband service from the same provider before enrolling in emergency broadband benefit they will need to opt in to continue broadband service.

For example, if someone was in existing providers low-cost program and they are now using the emergency broadband benefit to pay for that program every month, in that scenario would likely cover the full monthly bill.

The monthly bill would be reduced to zero.

Once the program ends would be notified by the provider that the funds for the program or the pandemic is over so the program is winding down.

Your bill will go back from zero to 15 or 20 dollars per month.

If you like to continue receiving service from us and paying the $20 per month we need to have you affirmatively opt in for that to happen.

We want to avoid is consumers getting an unexpected bill or amassing larger bills because they were not anticipating the need to pay for that monthly service once the benefit runs out.

A couple of things to note and keep in mind as we are working with the communities you serve.

They should expect to get a notice from the provider that they need to opt in to continue service and that is the choice they need to make.

It's also an opportunity for consumers to reach out to the provider and discuss what their options are.

Maybe they did upgrade to a faster tear of service because the benefit covered that for them and allowed them to make use of that faster tear.

There might be other tears that are more affordable but still meets their needs.

That's an important conversation for consumers to have with the provider once they find out what the timeline is for the program to wind down and. I want to spend a bit of time talking about the tools we have planned for partners and others to make use of.

We will have a number of hopefully useful resources that partners and advocates and navigators and others can use to support the EDD program to get the word out about the emergency broadband benefit.

Help people sign up and take advantage of this benefit and make use of it.

We will have local files, social media images, draft social media posts that you could grab and quickly make use of.

We also have a newsletter insert for people to essentially copy and paste and you can personalize it if you choose to cobranded and either send that out through an electronic newsletter or if you still do printed mail out newsletters copy and paste it in and make sure it goes out with the next mailing.

We will have printable fact sheets and flyers.

We'll have a nine by five info card, quarter page flyers, a poster and draft press release partners can take and make use of.

These are all free.

They are all available.

You can co-brand them and customize them and adjust the voice to better match yours.

The way you typically communicate with your audience, we will have the starting point of the examples or just the grab and go if you feel comfortable using we put out there, the versions available for folks and partners to make use of.

We are also going to have an ASL video that will explain the program in ASL.

We will have an overview video that will have highlight information about the program.

U.S. AC will produce a how to apply video that will walk through people through the online application portal.

We will have audio PSA's, radio stations and other people can make use of to spread the word about the program.

You also have a PowerPoint deck you can use to lead in your trainer sessions.

You can grab that PowerPoint session and work with others who may be similarly situated and ready to go out and help spread the word about the program and get people enrolled.

A number of the materials that we will have in the fact sheet will be available in Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Arabic, and some other languages.

FCC is committed to accessible formats if you need something in an accessible format can always contact 504@FCC.gov via email to make a request for an accessible format of any of the material that we produce.

I want to go back quickly and point out when we talk about applying online, when we talk about providers helping consumers it's important to note as a navigator or others serving to help eligible households enroll it's great to provide people with assistance whether it's online or with paper applications.

That assistance needs to be provided in person and the individual applying for the benefit must sign the application and make other adaptations either in the online portal or as part of the paper application.

I know a lot of people in the audience today serve in the navigator role and otherwise helping eligible individuals participate in programs like this.

Keep in mind when you do that when you're physically with the person they will need to sign electronically or on paper to submit the application and make some added stations required for the application process.

We are ready to move into questions.

Quickly before we go to that I want to share a couple resources.

You can find out a lot more information about the emergency broadband benefit program including having access to a long format comprehensive FAQ by visiting FCC.gov/ broadband benefit.

They will find a link to our toolkit when we posted that.

We have a request the speaker button on that page.

If you have an upcoming event or conference and you would like someone from the FCC to come and talk about the emergency broadband benefit there is an option for you to do that there.

There is a link to the list of providers by state that we have discussed a few times today.

Another important thing to remember is we have a toll-free number.

This is a number U.S. AC has set up and it's staffed seven days a week from nine- 9:00 p.m. Eastern time.

For people that have questions or need other help related to the emergency broadband method program.

The number is 823-511-0311.

Once we open for applications you can go to getemergencybroadband.org to find new online applications and to find examples of eligibility documentations and other useful information for those applying for the program.

Once applications open that will be a website to visit.

With that, Laurie will join me back on screen or at least start firing questions at me.

>> LORI: Thank you so much add.

This is really exciting and lots of information.

The Q&A section in the chat are very busy.

We will do our best to get to as many of these as possible.

First question is will there be any information about the emergency broadband benefit?

When will it launch in each state?

>> Some people are familiar with lifeline and they know the national verifier launch in different states at different times.

That's not the case for the emergency broadband benefit.

There will be a single start date.

Once applications open later this month, that date is the same date for all 56 states, territories and the District of Columbia.

Re: 

>> LORI: Are eligible if he did not have a substantial reduction of income from the puree 2020, however your income is below the threshold of the hundred 90,000 per family or 99,000 per individual in.

>> EDUARD: Hundred 98,000 for joint filers in a 9000 limit for single filers applies specifically to households that are only eligible for the benefit based on a substantial reduction of income since February 2020.

Other household income guidelines apply for some of the other qualification criteria.

>> LORI: Does the broadband include satellite Internet?

>> EDUARD: There are satellite service options that are included part of the program.

The visit the participating providers page you can see if satellite providers are serving your state as part of this program.

>> LORI: Does the device need to be purchased from the Internet provider when the person is accessing the emergency broadband benefit?

>> EDUARD: The device need to come from the same service provider providing service.

Can find out from the provider how they are offering the device and when they would make that available.

Whether that is on the D sign up you need to purchase this for maybe one month then or something like that you might have the option to purchase the device if you decide you need it at that point.

>> LORI: How many months is the $50 per month benefit?

How long can you continue to receive the benefit?

>> EDUARD: The benefit last as long as the funds are available.

It's not a program where if you are approved and eligible you get three months or four months or six months.

There is no time limit to the number of months that you can receive the benefit.

As long as there is still funds available and we have not declared an end to the pandemic in six more months have not passed yet.

>> LORI: Can public schools and colleges apply for the funding?

>> EDUARD: They cannot apply directly unless they fit into that multi unit living situation that was discussed.

Even then, I think we need to involve a subject matter expert into this.

FCC does have a separate program for school related Internet funding.

If you have questions about that I encourage you to reach out to us at the FCC directly.

You can send me an email or you can email our broadband benefit @FCC.gov and we can get you a more complete answer to that question.

>> LORI: Does an Internet service provider have to accept all who make me any of the categories for eligibility?

>> EDUARD: If you are eligible for the program it's my understanding if you got that eligibility from the program you should be able to go to provider of your choosing and sign up for service.

>> LORI: I'm not sure if we can answer this one but let me give it a try.

What is a substantial loss of income mean?

Is there a published table or guidelines about what loss of income is considered substantial?

>> EDUARD: We don't have a published table and we have not firmly defined substantial in terms of dollar values.

I think that's why there is an upper limit on the household income for the year.

That $99 and one $98 that we talked about earlier.

If you go to the website I mentioned which is the get emergency broadband.org and you go to how to apply and show that you qualify on the website you can find a list of some of the documents that he continues to show a substantial loss of income.

That might help to answer those questions around what would constitute substantial in the situation.

>> EDUARD: Thank you.

We have a question from New York State to.

They have Internet service provider that serves the area of the state and lots of people living in rural areas.

They were asking about whether their service provider is not listed in the list of providers.

Other opportunities for that service provider to enroll in the program?

>> EDUARD: There still are opportunities to join and list we have on our website and the list on the getemergencybroadband.org website are being updated daily as new providers sign up.

I would encourage if you live in an area and you don't see a provider you expected to see on the list, reach out to the provider and let them know.

This would help the community and this is a program you hope they would consider participating in.

>> EDUARD: Great.

>> LORI: Great.

In one of your slides there was a phrase participating providers for low-income programs.

There was a question about what does that include?

Is that the lifeline program?

>> EDUARD: Lifeline is distinct in terms of qualifying for the emergency broadband benefit, that's a distinct qualification category.

If you are eligible for lifeline that means you meet the 135 percent of the federal poverty guidelines for your household.

Were you received benefits from certain federal assistance programs and you qualify for lifeline.

The emergency broadband benefit also has a separate eligibility criteria and category that focuses on existing broadband service providers, low income plans.

There are existing providers.

Comcast is an example, charter, spectrum, AT&T also has an existing program.

That is not an exhaustive list.

There's other providers who have low income broadband programs.

If you were already participating in one of those programs or you meet the criteria for that program as a established by the provider who has the program, then you would be eligible for the emergency broadband benefit.

>> LORI: Can a person be enrolled in lifeline and the emergency broadband benefit?

>> EDUARD: Yes, you can and you can receive both benefits at the same time.

You can either have them applied to the same service, different services or even through different providers.

If you have lifeline apply to a mobile phone service and the emergency broadband benefit applied to a home Internet service or vice versa, you do have options.

>> LORI: Can you talk again about the emergency broadband benefit and what it actually is per month for the Internet service?

>> EDUARD: The program provides up to a $50 discount each month for broadband services and it's up to a $75 per month discount for broadband services for households on tribal lands.

There is obviously device discount for providers that are providing a device and that of $200.

The consumer needs to contribute more than $10 but less than $50 towards that device.

I wanted to mention one other thing, consumers have a choice here and they can change providers at any point during the program.

If you sign up for service through one provider and the service is not meeting your needs or you are not happy with the service for any reason, you can elect to move the benefit to a different provider and get you $50 per month discount through a different participating provider and program.

>> LORI: This next question is about who is eligible for the program.

There was a question about whether seniors can apply for this program or is it just intended for young students?

>> EDUARD: The program is open to seniors and some of the assistance programs that we cited as examples definitely have senior eligibility.

Some of the income-based programs evidently qualify seniors based on their household income.

It's open to anyone who qualifies.

It's not specifically designed for households with students.

It is open to all.

>> LORI: Will individuals and states without a state level emergency declaration be eligible for the emergency broadband benefit?

>> EDUARD: The program is based on HHS and the status of their declaration that the pandemic is still ongoing.

Until HHS declares the pandemic over, an additional six months have passed the EBV will be available to all 56 states, territories and the District of Columbia.

>> LORI: There is a question here, for lifeline eligibility -maybe we should take that one off client not to confuse people.

Some cities use community income level to qualify all of their students for free reduced lunch by qualifying entire school districts.

I think you might've spoke of this but we should probably cover it again.

The students automatically qualify for the pandemic EBT.

With these students also qualify for emergency broadband benefit since they are receiving snap?

>> EDUARD: Households that receive snap that's one of the eligibility criteria for both lifeline and the emergency broadband benefit.

If a member of the household is receiving the supplemental assistance benefit they would be eligible for the emergency broadband benefit.

Specific to the school lunch program or breakfast program, there is a Category 4 that called the community eligibility provision.

That allows for an entire school to be participating in the program without each individual household or student needing to apply for the benefit.

In situations where the entire school is qualified through the community eligibility provision, and that household will also be eligible for the benefit.

The specific question, they may be eligible for two different criteria.

You only need to meet one.

This nonparticipation would definitely make them eligible.

>> LORI: Thank you.

You mentioned there was a list of participating providers.

Could you state again where people can find that?

>> EDUARD: You can go to   fcc.gov.

>> LORI: The recording and the transcript and the slides will be provided on the website.

That will happen early next week we will send an email out so you are aware that the information has been posted.

>> EDUARD: I know we did not get through all of the questions and there where a lot of questions.

If you still have questions about the program, please send an email to broadband benefit@FCC.gov pack if we need to live in some of our subject matter experts that we call at the FCC will make sure to do that and get you an answer.

>> LORI: Is there FAQ document posted somewhere?

>> EDUARD: If you go to fcc.gov /benefit website you can find a comprehensive FAQ we can review the things we are hearing directly in the questions we are being sent.

>> LORI: We did have quite a few questions we did not get to today.

We've been trying to copy those onto a document.

Would it be possible to send those over to you and your team and they could get added to the FAQs?

Or can we post them in the webinar?

>> EDUARD: We are happy to take a looking work with you to get answers.

>> LORI: Terrific.

This will conclude our session for today.

We want to say a special thanks to our colleague Ed at the Federal Communications Commission and his colleagues Kayla and Kyle.

I want to call it my colleagues for their help in setting up today's webinar.

A special thanks to ATAP Dave Scherer, Jamie Anderson and Marty Exline for your work in setting up today's webinar.

Thanks very much and we look forward to working with all of you to help people get connected.

Have a wonderful day.

[end of session]