The Joint Board recommends that any telecommunications carrier, including, for example, cellular or PCS providers, regardless of the technology that it uses, that meets the criteria for eligibility spelled out in the Act, be eligible to receive universal service support. The Lifeline program reduces qualified low-income consumers' monthly phone charges with matching federal and state funds. A state may choose not to participate in the Lifeline program. The Link Up program provides federal support that reduces qualified low income consumers' initial local telephone connection charges by up to one half. Link Up is currently funded by contributions from interexchange carriers.
Support is currently available only to incumbent wireline local exchange carriers.
The Joint Board also states that it is desirable that the benchmark be based on the amount the carrier would expect to recover from other services to cover the cost of providing supported services in rural, insular, and high cost areas, but final determination of the methodology for selecting the benchmark must also consider the revenue base for universal service contributions. Rural carriers would not immediately use a proxy model to determine their cost of service. Most rural carriers will then move to the use of a proxy model over a three-year period. Rural carriers in Alaska and insular areas will continue to use frozen embedded per-line costs until further review. The Joint Board further recommends that the FCC continue to work with the states to develop an adequate proxy model for determining costs.