Upcoming Dates

11/18
2026
November 2026 Monthly Webinar
12/09
2026
December 2026 Monthly Webinar

See full calendar

Resources

How It Works

Lifeline is a federal program that offers a monthly benefit of up to $9.25 towards phone or internet services for eligible subscribers (up to $34.25 for those living on Tribal lands).

Eligible Consumers

A consumer can qualify for the Lifeline benefit if their income is 135% or less than the federal poverty guidelines, or if they participate in SNAP, Medicaid, or other federal programs. See the full list of qualifying factors.

Eligible Services

Lifeline subscribers can apply their benefit to home or mobile phone service or to high-speed broadband.

The Process

These steps will help service providers navigate the process to join Lifeline as an eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC).

1

Become an ETC

2

Create a Compliance Plan

3

Obtain a Study Area Code

4

Obtain a 498 ID

Get Started

Announcements

Ad-Hoc System Maintenance on November 3

Nov 3, 2026

USAC will perform an ad-hoc system maintenance today on Tuesday, November 3, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET.

The production environments of the following systems are impacted:

  • National Verifier Portal
  • National Verifier Carrier API  
    • ...

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Lifeline Newsletter – October 2026

Oct 29, 2026

  • Reminder: Provider Billing Must Include Amount Charged and Amount Passed Through

    • USAC will perform an ad-hoc system maintenance on Thursday, October 29, from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m....

    Read More
Website Outage – Resolved

Oct 21, 2026

USAC is aware that usac.org and LifelineSupport.org were unavailable earlier today. Full access has now been...

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Website Outage Notice

Oct 21, 2026

USAC is aware that usac.org and LifelineSupport.org are currently unavailable. Our technical teams are actively...

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Read more announcements