(CNSNews) - Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler announced on Thursday that he intends to expand Lifeline, popularly known as the “Obama Phone” program, to the Internet.
“I am circulating new proposals to “reboot” Lifeline for the Internet age,” Wheeler wrote in a blog post on the FCC’s Website. He said the reboot would include “establishing minimum standards of service for voice and broadband,” in addition to subsidies for low-income consumers.
Lifeline is a government benefit program that provides a monthly subsidy of $9.95 on telephone service for those at or below 135 percent of the poverty line so they can connect to the nation's communications networks, find jobs, access health care services, connect with family and their children's schools, and call for help in an emergency.
The money comes out of the Universal Service Fund (USF), which is funded through fees paid by consumers on telephone service. The fee is generally itemized on customers’ monthly telephone bills and is currently assessed at a rate of 16.1 percent of the bill.
The size of the Lifeline program has doubled since 2008, increasing from $819 million to $1.6 billion in 2014. It reached a high of $2.19 billion in 2012 amid allegations of fraud and abuse.
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6 comments:
Jobs for patronage Progressives .. is what programs are all about..
Giving more money away to those not willing to work for it!
Soooooo WRONG!
We really need some legislators with backbone......and more people willing to vote for them!
So I get the privilege of paying almost $50 per month for someone else's phone? How nice.
SOMEONE come here and NAME 10 people that have actually looked for a job and got one with these free welfare phones.
I'll give you the whole country to sample and a week to come up the names.
16% of my bill goes to pay for phones used by people who sit on their front steps all day to yell at traffic or stand in traffic begging.
Finding a job?
How many of those "protesters" in Baltimore had one (or 5-10) of these phones?
Answer?
Every one of them.
Did you see any of them leaving so they go to work?
Keep cheering.
This is totally BS since they don't want a job, don't have to document anything since it is never checked on.
They should have to work or clean ditches and roadsides for their money and have a urinalysis completed the proper way. Not the way Doctors and others conduct the test. Guarantee they will find work then
The "Lifeline" program should never have been exponentially expanded beyond its intended purpose. A single, no-frills of any kind landline, just dialtone in case they needed to call 911 or look for work. Not giving them actua cell phones, made in China, plus cell service. They get at least 100 free texts on the phones, maybe more. Who applies for work via text?
But to dig into the pockets of the taxpayer even further, to give them another $10 a month subsidy towards internet connectivity is an outrage. All they have to do is go to the library, or any of the places that have free wi-if.
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