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State of Florida
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Public Service Commission Capital Circle Office Center ● 2540 Shumard
Oak Boulevard -M-E-M-O-R-A-N-D-U-M- |
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DATE: |
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TO: |
Office of Commission Clerk (Teitzman) |
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FROM: |
Office of Industry Development and Market Analysis (Mallow, Fogleman) Office of the General Counsel (Hixon) |
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RE: |
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AGENDA: |
10/06/26 – Regular Agenda – Interested Persons May Participate |
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COMMISSIONERS ASSIGNED: |
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PREHEARING OFFICER: |
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SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS: |
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On August 4, 2026, Frontier Florida LLC (Frontier) filed a petition with the Florida Public Service Commission (Commission) for partial relinquishment of its ETC status for select census blocks in the state of Florida. On October 14, 1997, pursuant to 47 U.S.C. § 214(e)(1), the Commission designated Frontier Florida as an ETC throughout its service area.[1] An ETC designation is a requirement for telecommunications carriers to receive funding support from the federal Universal Service Fund for the Lifeline and High-Cost programs. The Lifeline program enables low-income households to obtain and maintain basic telephone and broadband services by offering qualifying households a discount on monthly bills. The High-Cost program helps carriers provide voice and broadband service in remote and underserved communities.
The main purpose of Frontier’s ETC designation - to enable the receipt of high-cost support - no longer exists for Frontier in almost all of its service area. Since the FCC’s original Connect America Fund (CAF) program ended in December 2021, Frontier has only been receiving high-cost universal service support for a small number of census blocks, with about 800 locations, where it was awarded Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support in the FCC’s 2020 RDOF auction.
Additionally, there has been a significant decline in the number of Frontier Lifeline customers. Frontier currently has just 771 Lifeline customers in Florida - a 49 percent decline from just five years ago.[2] Consistent with the national trend, the vast majority of Lifeline-supported households in Florida have chosen to obtain Lifeline service from one of the many mobile wireless ETCs that have been designated by the Commission or the FCC. [3]
Under the 47 U.S.C. § 214(e)(4) ETC relinquishment standard, a state commission must permit an ETC to relinquish this designation in any area served by more than one ETC. Because the Commission has designated a dozen mobile wireless ETCs on a statewide or near statewide basis and has also designated fixed providers as ETCs in certain areas, the relinquishment standard is met throughout Frontier’s service territory. Frontier could therefore relinquish its ETC designation everywhere except the small number of RDOF-supported census blocks where it must retain its ETC status to remain eligible for RDOF support.
Frontier is only partially relinquishing its ETC designation. Frontier’s relinquishment is limited to a small number of wire centers where Frontier does not currently serve customers over fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) and does not anticipate deploying FTTP in the near future. Specifically, Frontier is relinquishing its ETC designation in the nine wire centers listed in Attachment A. Frontier is retaining its ETC designation in the rest of its Florida service area, i.e., in all areas where it has deployed FTTP or anticipates deploying FTTP in the near future, including the wire centers with RDOF-supported census blocks.
The Commission is vested with jurisdiction in this matter, pursuant to Section 364.10, Florida Statutes, 47 U.S.C. §214(e)(4), and 47 C.F.R. §54.205.