TracFone urged the FCC Tuesday to approve its...

TracFone urged the FCC Tuesday to approve its petition to allow TracFone and other eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) to retain copies of documentation showing consumers are eligible for the commission’s Lifeline program. Waiving or amending the Lifeline rules to allow document retention will enable ETCs to “further ensure that they provide Lifeline service only to qualified households and to respond to audits and other inquiries from USAC [Universal Service Administrative Co.] and the Commission with auditable information,” TracFone said. All of the comments on the TracFone petition were supportive, with one of the main arguments for ending the FCC’s ban on Lifeline document retention that ETCs “are unable to defend themselves in the event of an audit or in-depth validation review” by USAC or the FCC, TracFone said. The FCC’s recent enforcement actions against several ETCs over allegations of duplicate Lifeline subscribers “indicates that there is a real threat of future enforcement actions” and that “it is imperative that ETCs be allowed to fully defend themselves by retaining evidence that they comply with all applicable rules” on Lifeline eligibility, TracFone said. All commenters agreed with TracFone that safeguards would reduce privacy concerns related to document retention, including document encryption, separate storage, access limitations and advance consent on Lifeline application forms, TracFone said (http://bit.ly/1eSQHqA).