The Federal Communications Commission recently confirmed that it has gone ahead with an approval for a new internet-for-the-poor program along the same lines as Lifeline, its free government cell phone program.
In a release, Mark Henry, Editor of CheapInternet.com said, “Millions of low income Americans have been waiting for this. Lifeline internet is going to make it a lot easier for low-income adults to get jobs and a lot easier for poor children to succeed in school. Broadband has gone from being a luxury to being a necessity. This program is exactly what low income Americans need to succeed”
This program goes under the label of Connect America and its participants will need to invest just $10 a month for a high-speed broadband service. But since the program is working in such close quarters with the Lifeline free government cell phone program, there is every chance that this monthly fee too will be waived off in the future.
According to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski (News - Alert), a pilot program worth $25 million will be funded and this will be done by coming down hard on fraud in the Lifeline phone program. All of the savings thus accrued will be used to pay for these additional new benefits. Genachowski also added that an audit of Lifeline phone vendors is currently underway to ferret out fraud and through this over 270,000 fraudulent subscriptions in 12 states have been unearthed. As per the FCC (News - Alert) Chairman, these changes will save them as high as $2 billion in the next few years and this is much more than they would need to fund the beginnings of a cheap internet program.
In order to be eligible for Lifeline’s free government cell phone or for the new cheap internet program one will have to have participated in one of the numerous other Government aid programs. These could be the National School Lunch Program, food stamps (SNAP), or public housing assistance. It could also be Medicaid, Section 8 housing, Supplemental Security Income among other programs. If your home’s income is not higher than 135 percent of federal poverty guidelines then you could qualify for this program. Keep in mind though that some states go as much as 150 percent.
Henry says, “Cheap internet today. Free internet tomorrow. It will pay for itself a thousand times over.”
Carolyn John is a Contributor to TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please columnist page.Edited by
Chris DiMarco
