The National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD) is designed to help carriers identify and resolve duplicate claims for Lifeline Program-supported service and prevent future duplicates. This is done by providing a means for carriers to check on a real-time and nationwide basis if the consumer is already receiving a Lifeline Program-supported service.
Eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) are required to provide information about subscribers and obtain status, feedback, and reporting information. The IDI platform can capture the required information and integrate with the NLAD Application Program Interface (API) to update the database as needed.
This integration includes the ability to check for duplicate subscribers and/or addresses prior to submitting an order for a new service. Third Party Identity Verification errors occur on a duplicate subscriber or address. These errors must be resolved as a separate step by contacting NLAD directly. To allow Lifeline enrollment sales to complete, a Manager Override bypasses the error and the IDI platform flags the account with an unresolved TPIV error. A Follow-up is assigned to a user (or group) to resolve the error and manually enroll the subscriber in NLAD. The submission job that updates NLAD ignores accounts flagged with an unresolved TPIV error, except for de-enroll transactions. This exception is needed in cases where a subscriber had a TPIV error that was resolved, manually enrolled in NLAD, but the TPIV Resolution Required flag was never cleared on the customer record.
NLAD Setup
Your company must create an account with the NLAD administration, Universal Service Administrative Company. The NLAD administration provides you with credentials to access the database. These credentials are encrypted and added to the IDI platform by IDI in Config Console in the Web Connections section. Two sets of credentials (including two separate URLs) are required – one for the NLAD pre-production environment and one for production. The URL for pre-production is https://nlad-preprod.universalservice.org and the production URL is https://nlad.universalservice.org.
The NLAD functionality must be enabled in Admin Console. If this is not enabled, none of the forms required for NLAD are displayed on the Customer Account or during POS Make Sale. The Follow-up Type and the person to perform the Follow-up must be configured in Admin Console. (See NLAD Settings in Admin Console.)
Create Disconnect Reasons associated with a de-enroll reason as required by NLAD. Four types of de-enroll transactions can be sent to NLAD. (See Change Reasons in Admin Console.)
Your company's Study Area Codes are used to automatically assign to subscribers based on their state. (See State Reference in Admin Console.)
Permissions must be enabled under Security > Profiles > Permission Profiles in Admin Console to mask the Benefit Qualifying Person's birth date. (Confidential Information > NLAD BQP Date Of Birth)
Permissions for a manager must be enabled under Security > Profiles > Permission Profiles in Admin Console to allow the continuation of an order with an unresolved TPIV error and to set or clear an unresolved TPIV error status on customer records. (Application > CostGuard Client > Customer Management > Customers > Manual TPIV Resolution)
The presence or lack of certain products determine whether a service is enrolled in or de-enrolled from NLAD. To mark a product for Lifeline, assign it to the NLAD Catalog Group in the Product Catalog (see Catalog Groups). When this item is assigned to a service in POS Make Sale, the system presents the appropriate NLAD forms to be populated.
Customer Information for NLAD
NLAD information is gathered on the NLAD Service Information page of the Make Sale Wizard.
Notes:
The TPIV Resolution Required check box can only be overridden by a manager.
Only TPIV errors can be bypassed with the TPIV Resolution Required check box. Any other NLAD errors must be resolved before continuing with the order. If an error is received while submitting the request to NLAD, a Follow Up is generated.
The information is stored on the NLAD tab of the account's Edit Customer Info window. (See NLAD Tab in Customer Management for descriptions of the fields.)