The head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission circulated Tuesday a final proposal seeking approval for a $9.25 monthly subsidy for low-income Americans to get broadband Internet access.
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The Lifeline program has helped Americans at or near the poverty line afford landlines and mobile phone service over its 31 years.
“Thirty years ago, the FCC correctly recognized that basic telephone service was critical for Americans to fully engage in our society and created the low-income telephone Lifeline program”.
The Federal Communications Commission released a plan Tuesday to overhaul its low-income subsidy program Lifeline to include broadband internet, marking a new effort to close the digital divide for the millions of Americans who still don’t have a home internet connection.
Phillip Berenbroick at the consumer group Public Knowledge welcomed the proposal, saying that “access to broadband Internet service has become a necessity in modern America”.
Wheeler and Clyburn say real people are hiding in these statistics: “Unemployed workers who miss out on jobs that are only listed online, students who go to fast-food restaurants to use the Wi-Fi hotspots to do homework, veterans who are unable to apply for their hard-earned benefits, seniors who can’t look up health information when they get sick”.
The Lifeline program has come under criticism following reports that its subsidies were being abused. “Such irresponsible action will balloon a program plagued by waste, fraud and abuse, and result in higher phone bills for every American – including those already struggling in the current economy”, Republican commissioner Michael O’Rielly wrote in a blog post last week.
It would revamp an existing program known as Lifeline, which now gives $9.25 a month to eligible households to spend on telephone service. In 2005, the program was extended to subsidize pre-paid wireless service plans as well. “Before again expanding the program, we need to consider what problems remain and how we can address them”, Republican Senator Roger Wicker said over the summer.
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“It’s a recipe for disaster, and I can’t and won’t be part of it”, O’Rielly said. The additional budget would allow more than 5 million additional households to take advantage of the program, but the FCC does not expect the entire budget will be used immediately.
