Free cellphones and air time

[harry51]

https://www.safelinkwireless.com/EnrollmentPublic/home.aspx

[MountainDon]

Well, as soon as I saw the words "government supported program" I said "What the heck is this"

Then after reading a little I see that the phone is free because Tracfone (Safelink is a Tracfone affiliate) has decided to give the phone to eligible customers. The government does not pay for the phone.

The government does pay for 68 minutes airtime per month, an average of 2  1/4 minutes per day. That's all. All overages are the customers responsibility. That's where Tracfone hopes to make their money.

The program is twenty years old. It's just recently that it has been extended to cell phones and not just land lines.

When the Lifeline Program is applied to landlines, as was the original intention, there are limits to the amounts paid. For example, in California, "the lesser of range $5.47 to $6.11 or 1/2 of the carrier's residential flat-rate local telephone service". The government is still not going to pay for the whole thing.
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/Telco/Public+Programs/lifelinedetails.htm

The official nationwide federal site...
http://www.lifeline.gov/lifeline_Consumers.html


So not much new there other than the fact that the cell phone companies talked their way into the deal. It is another welfare subsidy though. One does have to requalify annually.