Author Archive | Admin

For some time now, debate has been raging about whether the Lifeline Assistance program which provides free or discounted cell phone service to millions of low or no income Americans is being abused.  Now, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has revealed the startling numbers associated with Lifeline Assistance fraud.  And it turns out that more than two million lifeline subscribers are suspected of fraudulently abusing the system.

Amazingly enough, just a month ago, the FCC published a press release stating the numbers were suspected to be around 1.1 million.  Now that the commission is reporting a number closer to 2 million, that represents a tremendous jump.  Thankfully, the FCC has also traced the root of the problem and is taking action.

What is going to be done about the rampant abuse of the Lifeline cell phone program?  Getting rid of the program seems senseless, particularly considering how many subscribers actually need it in order to get by, especially in today’s tough economy.  Instead, the FCC is proposing consequences against Lifeline providers who continue to violate program rules in providing Lifeline coverage.

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed $32.6 million in fines against three companies so far that were found to be breaking the rules regarding eligibility.  The three companies in question repeatedly violated the one-subscriber-per-household rule.  They also received payments from customers who were simultaneously enrolled in Lifeline services.  In other words, they were collecting duplicate payments for service—once from the customers themselves, and once from the government.

The three companies that the FCC is seeking action against are Conexion Wireless, i-wireless, and True Wireless.  Conexion is a company that has been providing service in Arkansas, Maryland and Western Virginia.  Over the course of eight months, the FCC has tracked repeated violations.  The commission is seeking $18.4 million in fines against the provider.  i-Wireless will be forced to pay $8.8 million for violations over seven months in Illinois, Ohio, North and South Carolina, Indiana, New York, West Virginia, and Tennessee.  In Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Maryland, True Wireless committed repeated rule violations over eight months, for which the FCC is seeking $5.5 million in retribution.

The FCC determined that each of these providers was completely aware that their customers were ineligible.  After all, those customers were able to afford service from those same carriers.  Likewise, the one-user-per-household rule was being blatantly ignored, even though household data existed on the company servers.  The FCC is seeking to recover all funds paid for duplicate service through the Lifeline program.

Furthermore, Conexions is in additional trouble with the FCC for failing to comply with the investigative procedures.  Conexions may have been deliberately and willfully concealing information from the FCC, so the commission is seeking to impose a penalty of $300,000 on the company in addition to the $18.4 million in fines for rule breaking.

The Lifeline “free cell phone” program was launched by the government in 1985 to help customers with low incomes to afford basic telephone services.  The program is important because it gives customers access to emergency help when needed, and enhances their ability to carry out the day-to-day business of living.  Without this program, it can be challenging for customers to call government offices for support and contact potential employers about job opportunities.  Losing these connections makes it impossible to climb out of poverty.  Not having a cell phone can also be life threatening during a medical emergency, fire, or other crisis.

While the program has been under fire in recent years, most of the criticism has been directed against the program itself, or against members of the public who have been abusing the system.  Now it appears that the main reason for the mass fraud can be traced back to the greed of the companies which have been entrusted as distributors of the Lifeline program, rather than individual Americans.  These companies have purposefully deceived the government (and likely their subscribers as well), by signing up users for both the Lifeline program and their regular phone services—all in order to double their profits while robbing taxpayers blind.

As the FCC tightens its regulations and launches further investigations into telephone companies like Conexions, instances of Lifeline fraud should decrease quickly.  The fines being leveled against these companies will help to bring money back into the system, lessening the blow on taxpayers.  Hopefully the FCC will also be conducting regular investigations into each of the Lifeline program distributors around the country.  This will enable the government to continue offering Lifeline Assistance to needy consumers.

Return to our homepage.

Terracom, a regional free government cell phone provider, was one of five companies recently under review by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.  The provider has been cleared by the commission following a repayment of $11,000.  Regulators started investigating the company’s business practices in February after noticing that several regional wireless companies were doing a poor job tracking the eligibility of customers subscribing to the Lifeline Assistance Program.

TerraCom provides services to customers in 14 different states.  They are not the only free government cell phone provider to come under investigation recently.  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is currently seeking penalties against one regional provider called Conexions for willfully deceiving the government and dodging investigators.  TerraCom on the other hand cooperated with state regulators during the investigation.

“TerraCom has clearly demonstrated that our practices are compliant,” stated the company’s chief operating officer, Dale Schmick.  “… We are committed to maintaining these high standards so that we can continue to deliver crucial telephone service to those who need it most here in Oklahoma and around the country.”

Investigators concluded that TerraCom’s errors were indeed mistakes, and that they made no deliberate attempt to defraud the government or customers.  They collected $11,132 in Lifeline reimbursements from the Oklahoma Universal Service Fund between May 2011 and October 2012 on mistake.  Since they have paid back the amount in full, they are now clear to continue operating as usual—with some administrative modifications to prevent future accounting errors.

What changes is the company making?  For one thing, TerraCom will cease outsourcing critical accounting procedures, and will be providing additional training to staff members so that they are able to do all the work in-house.  Schmick explained that all subscriber data will be reviewed at least three times before any reimbursement filings are made in the future.  This will prevent the company from missing duplicate subscriber information in the future, and will enable them to be able to correct errors as they arise, rather than claim reimbursements which they are not eligible for.

This is not TerraCom’s first reimbursement-related error.  Earlier in the year, they had to pay $402,000 back for reimbursements they claimed through the federal version of the free government cell program.  The FCC also charged the company an additional $440,000 for another violation.  Nonetheless, state regulators were impressed with the turnaround in TerraCom’s practices, and their decision to cooperate in full with the investigation.  Teena May, a regulatory analyst who works for the Corporation Commission pointed out that “while this does not negate prior issues, it shows a desire to improve the process and maintain (TerraCom’s) standing as an honorable Lifeline program provider.”

Four other providers have been under investigation by the commission.  Three of those providers, Easy Wireless of Florida, Assist Wireless of Texas, and True Wireless of Tennessee, remain under investigation.  A fourth company called Icon Telecom Inc. pulled out of doing business altogether in September after regulators discovered discrepancies in their books.

To participate in Lifeline, subscribers must be eligible for other types of public assistance.  The same guidelines determine Lifeline eligibility.  If a provider determines that a customer is eligible, that customer may qualify for one subsidized cell phone or landline phone (per household).  The provider is in turn reimbursed by the government for providing service to the customer.  Duplication has been a major issue over the past few years, with many companies selling service to customers while also claiming reimbursements illegally for those customers.  In some cases, these practices represent out-and-out fraud.  In the case of TerraCom however, for once it appears that the duplications may have been a simple, honest mistake.

Return to our homepage.

Recently there have been a number of headlines concerning a feud that has developed between two politicians, U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-La.) and retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark.  Clark is best known for his run for president in 2004 as a Democrat.  In October, Clark visited Louisiana to promote the free government cell phone program known as Lifeline.  While in LA, he attempted to spread the word to needy residents who might be eligible for assistance, including military veterans.

Senator Vitter didn’t take too kindly to Wesley Clark’s visit.  After Clark’s tour in Louisiana, Vitter wrote him a letter thanking him courteously for “coming to Louisiana and calling increased attention to Lifeline, the fraud-ridden free government cell phone program for welfare recipients.”  He then invited Clark to enter into a public discussion with him regarding the free cell phone program, and his efforts to “end the waste, fraud, and abuse surrounding it.”

According to The Advocate, Clark responded to Vitter, stating that he would be “more than happy” to debate with Vitter in Louisiana as well as Washington D.C.  He did ask for a condition to be met first, though, which was a sit-down with veterans living in Louisiana state who were relying on the Lifeline program in order to conduct the basic business of their lives.

Vitter’s website tells a different story.  According to the Senator himself, he did indeed receive a reply from Clark regarding an open dialogue about the program.  He stated however that Clark had not agreed to any of the proposed debate dates.  This is likely because Vitter did not agree to the condition that Clark set forth for the conversation to take place, regarding the meeting with the veterans.  All that Vitter has said on his website about the matter is that he is “very disappointed” that Clark is not fulfilling commitments he apparently made to Vitter over the phone.

Vitter went next after a “public affairs company that represents veterans advocacy” and apparently sponsored Clark’s tour of the state.  The company is not named, but Vitter stated that he would like to know whether the program was supported by companies receiving funds from Lifeline through fraudulent activities.  Vitter included a copy of his own letter on the website, detailing the concerns he has about Clark’s activities.  What he does not include is Clark’s own reply from earlier, even though he agreed that Clark did send some kind of a response.  In short, both men appear interested in talking, but neither want to do so under the terms set by the other.  The result is a deadlock in the conversation regarding the state’s public services.

In his own statements, Clark has talked about the importance of the free government cell phone program to Louisiana veterans and others in need.  “When I visited Louisiana, I met with people in need who told me the importance of Lifeline to them,” reported The Advocate.  “They explained that access to communications, including having their own telephone number, is vital to seeking and maintaining employment, as well as for health, medical, and community and personal safety issues.”  Clark goes on to add that he has discovered that around 300,000 residents of Louisiana are reliant on the Lifeline program for their telephone services.  Thirty thousand of those residents, a full tenth, are veterans.

It has been around a week since the events reported between Clark and Vitter took place, and since then, there have been no reported updates on the proposed debates or when they might take place.  There is no denying that both these politicians have good points to make and have something to contribute to the discussion on the Lifeline Assistance program.

The government cell phone program is indeed plagued by fraud, but as Clark points out, gutting the program would harm the nation’s most vulnerable citizens, who are depending on it to pull themselves out of financial destitution and start a new, more independent life.  Many of those who legitimately are using the program are our nation’s veterans, and have already made great sacrifices for this country.  Instead of dismantling the program, a focus on repairing it and preventing fraud would provide a more equitable solution for everyone.

Return to our homepage.

The Federal Communications Commission works hard to ensure that their employees and work environment fosters tolerance and awareness. The FCC created the Lifeline Program, a free mobile phone program that provides access to affordable telecommunications American households living at or below the poverty line.

The first ten days of May are considered Asian-Pacific Heritage Week in the USA. May was chosen in order to honour the first Japanese to immigrate to the United States on May 7^th 1843. Since then, the rules have changed in order to incorporate the whole month of May as heritage month for Asian-Pacific peoples.

The leaders of the Federal Communications Commission want to work closely with Asian American leaders to foster a close relationship that will address stakeholder questions and concerns and also provide technical assistance. The Asian and Pacific populations are the fastest growing immigrant populations in the United States. What is more significant for the Federal Communications Commission is that over 80% of Asian American households have access to broadband, which is the highest percentage of broadband use amongst any ethnic population. This is particularly important to the Federal Communications Commission as they are solely involved in matters of the telecommunications realm with the American public.

We hope that this relationship will continue to grow and create an understanding of the USA’s Asian-Pacific population.

Return to our homepage.

The Lifeline Program has recently been approved in the state of California. This government program, created by the Federal Communications Commission in the 1980s in order to provide accessible telecommunications for the nations’ poor has already been spreading throughout the states like wildfire. Except in this situation, it is a highly welcomed event for the millions of American families living at or below the poverty level.

The Lifeline Program, which offers free mobile phones to those who are eligible and fit the criteria, offers just that to those in need; a lifeline. To be without access to a mobile phone or broadband is likened to being left behind when the ship sinks without a dinghy to cling to. There are millions of citizens of the United States who are living far below the poverty line and who cannot afford to pay for a telephone line, much less a mobile phone or Internet access. With the world moving towards online businesses and web-based education systems and healthcare systems, access to telecommunications is more a human right rather than a luxury. Without access, one cannot find a job, much less be expected to keep the job. Without Internet access, students from lower-income catchment areas fall behind their luckier counterparts, unable to keep up with the current technological demands and Internet know-how that their colleagues have.

When the Lifeline Program came into being, it was met with both sighs of relief and raised eyebrows. Those who were more socially conscious applauded the government’s movement towards equality and offering opportunity to people who were less fortunate. The United States prides itself on being a country of freedom and a land of opportunity. How could the citizens stand proud of this very fact if their own neighbours, brothers and sisters were suffering because they could not afford access to the sole means of staying connected?

The Elderly

The elderly, who live on pensions and have no monthly income other than what the government is providing, have to depend on telecommunications in order to stay in touch with healthcare providers, emergency services, friends and family members. Many of the nations’ senior citizens are not upwardly mobile and require their mobile phone or their landline – yes, even their internet access – in order to stay safe, to stay connected. Imagine injuring your hip or being unable to find your life-saving medication and not having a way to call your healthcare worker? It can be an isolating and extremely frightening situation indeed. No human deserves to live like that; especially not one living on American soil after having paid their taxes for much of their lives prior to retirement. They need and deserve the opportunity to have a free mobile phone if they are eligible for it.

The Unemployed

The unemployed who are struggling in our nation as of this moment – especially after the credit crunch of 2008 – require modes of communication in order to find and keep new jobs. Nowadays, over 80% of job applications are required to be done online, often on the company’s website or via emails sent to their human resources center. Without access to modern telecommunications, hard-working Americans who want jobs in order to get out of their challenging situation will fall behind. Not only that, they will become dependent on a system that is supposed to be helping them to become independent.

Veterans

There are veterans who are injured and disabled, living on measly payouts from the United States Army insurance plans who may also be on a myriad of medications for pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and therefore may be unable to work for one reason or another. Access to telecommunications – affordable telecommunications – allows them to stay connected with society. This lessens the post-traumatic stress disorder; this also allows them to feel less isolated after participating in a gruelling and often thankless job of protecting our nation. Veterans have served the nation with the knowledge that the end cost may be their lives. To not provide them with the comfort of affordable ways to connect with society is inhuman and unjust.

Individuals With Disabilities

The disabled fall into a similar category as veterans. Many are hard-working citizens who have become disabled due to injury from their very job. Working in a dangerous occupation and then losing a limb or sustaining permanent painful injuries is not only emotionally crushing, but also nearly impossible to recover from, financially speaking. Subsisting on government assistance and insurance payouts, often compensates for the cost medication and the post-surgical care, but not enough to carry on with a quality of life that was known before the accident. Free mobile phones would give a lot of peace of mind to these members of our society.

Homeless Persons

Then there are the homeless, or those without permanent addresses. When we think of those who are living on the streets or in shelters, we often do not think of the stories that are hidden behind those hands reaching out for spare change. We often only see the dirty fingernails, or the sign written on a piece of cardboard stating that they will work for food, or some other advertisement of their unfortunate situation. Many of us turn the other way, choosing not to see them as people, but rather as nonexistent entities – it’s much easier to walk through life thinking that everyone around us is just as lucky as we are. That way we can feel less guilty about our waste and our consumerism. We can feel less connected to those who may actually have stories that we can relate to.

The thing is, many of those without addresses or homes, many of those living in shelters or under bridges – they each have a story. Of course, there are those who truly do choose to live that life, but that is very rare. The vast majority of those living in filth and danger are there because life threw them a curveball that they could not dodge. Life Happened and they did not recover. The man shuffling into the diner every morning to use his found change to have a hot cup of coffee could have lost his whole family to a drunk driver and without anyone to turn to, fell into the dark tunnel of his own angst and anger and found himself at the bottom of his bottle and on the street…and has not been able to get back up again. This may sound like a fantastical story only found in novels and movies, but these statistics are out there and they are staggering.

Single Parents And Other At-Risk Groups

There are women in shelters hiding with their children from abusive husbands. There are people who want to get clean, who want to find a job, but do not have two dollars to press a suit to get to an interview. These are the homeless. These are the ones who have fallen between the cracks. These are the citizens that we have all forgotten – that we have chosen to forget or judge as lazy or unintelligent or druggies because it is just that much easier for us to do. It is much easier to judge than to learn the actual story. Yet behind every sad face, is a sad sad story.

The sad truth is that life on the streets is dangerous. Every night has the potential to find someone killed, mugged, raped or beaten. The streets have their own agenda with their own rules and can be a very isolating and destructive place to find oneself. The number of children who find themselves on the street is just too high.

California Taking Action

The state of California is moving forward with the proposal to provide free mobile phones through the Lifeline Program to their homeless population. The reason? Because nobody deserves to live a life fraught with danger, no matter what they have done in their past. A mobile phone allows one to have access to emergency services, such as the police or paramedics at the touch of a few numbers. When is the last time you saw a functioning pay phone in your town or city? Because of the mobile phone and cellular communication, almost all phone booths have been torn down or are disused to the point that they are broken. The free 911-call option from a phone booth is not available anymore. And for those living on the street, that number is often the difference between life and death.

We applaud the state of California for wanting to go through with this. They are showing that the homeless or those without permanent addresses are not to be denied safety. We are all human and we all have the fundamental right to live a healthy life with food, clean water, a shelter, heat and access to safety. The Lifeline program provides that for this disenfranchised population. We are glad that they are not forgotten.

Return to our homepage.

The Lifeline Program has been stirring up a lot of controversy amongst the public in the United States. This free government cell phone program had been created by the Federal Communications Commission back in the 1980s in order to address the lack of access to telecommunications for numerous American citizens. It is funded by the Universal Services Fund that pays subsidies to any of the phone carriers that are participants in this program.

The current fear is that the US Government Federal Agency is now using the mobile phones in order to listen in on conversations in an effort to detect any illegal activity.

Perhaps the bigger fear here should be the fact that people are now seeing the free mobile phones as a way to co-ordinate criminal activity without being traced. However, that is beside the point.

The point is, that the public is feeling as though their privacy rights are being violated if there is the potential that the government is now using the free mobile phones as a way to keep an eye on the underprivileged. One could argue that the underprivileged is a population that is more prone to illegal activity, but that would also be putting millions of innocent and hard working citizens into the same category.

The fear stems from the fact that before 2007, there were cases of criminal prosecutions in which the government used cell phone conversation recordings in order to convict the suspects. In fact, over 200 different cases had been closed using recorded cell phone conversations, however, no warrants had been issued in order to use the cell phone conversations.

Now, the US government is under scrutiny by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the manner in which they obtained those arrests. It is a huge infringement of privacy rights and the Circuit is now looking into altering privacy laws.

The long and the short of it is this: Unless you are part of a huge illegal cartel that is participating in some seriously sketchy business here in the United States, you have nothing to worry about and the Feds will not be allowed to listen to your phone conversations without a warrant.

Illegal activity on free mobile phones is a horrible way to take advantage of a system that is in place to help the needy get to a better place in life. What this does is just bites the hand that feeds and it becomes harder for systems like this, programs that truly help those who need it the most, to come into fruition. If there is too much fraud and if it becomes too easy for people to take advantage of good programs like Lifeline, then what hope is there for those good people of America that truly need it?

If you know of any criminal activity going on using the Lifeline Phones as their method of communication and execution, please report it immediately to your local police or authorities. Do not let a criminal few ruin it for the honest majority.

Return to our homepage.

DBC Wireless in Bakersfield, California is now open for business, providing free Lifeline mobile phones for the local residents’ needy population.

The Lifeline Program was created in the 1980s during the Reagan Administration in order to provide equal access to affordable telecommunications access. It started as providing free landlines to those who were living in rural areas and could not afford a phone line and eventually evolved to include mobile phones after Hurricane Katrina. Now it is a nation-wide humanitarian effort to provide affordable mobile phone and Internet packages for those who are living at 135% or below the poverty line or are a participant in a state or federal-run social assistance program. It also is provided to the homeless, the disabled, or those living in shelters and women’s safe houses in order to provide access to emergency response teams, ambulance services, and healthcare services. It is allowing everyone, regardless of financial situation, race, creed, religion, or ethnicity to be able to have safety and security – a fundamental human right.

DBC Wireless will be allowing those who are eligible to receive 250 free talk minutes per month along with the free texts once they receive this free mobile Lifeline phone.

Mr. James Ladbetter signed up for the program and told the news crews that this program was vital to his survival as he has been in and out of UCLA Medical for a heart condition. He has said that this free mobile phone is literally his lifeline.

This program is called the Good2Go program and, much like the Lifeline program, is making sure that those who are eligible will receive access to the same safety and security that every other citizen is allowed access to.

In order to be eligible, one must be a participant in one of these programs: Medi-cal, CalFRESH, CalWORKs, SSI, Healthy Families (category A), WIC, and Federal Public Housing Assistance (Section 8). Consumers are only eligible for one free mobile phone per household.

Return to our homepage.

With the recent headlines of Melchior, a journalist who did her own investigative journalistic experiments in order to see how easy it would be to obtain a free Lifeline mobile phone and received not one but several different free mobile phones (two of them from the same carrier), the public outcries toward the Federal Communications Commission started all again.

The Lifeline Program was started in the 1980s in order to allow those who were living at 135% or below of the poverty line to have affordable access to telecommunications. Back then, it was having a landline installed free of charge and having a reduced monthly fee for use of that landline.

When Hurricane Katrina hit in early 2000, the Bush Administration decided that it would be a humanitarian act to add mobile phones to the Lifeline Program. This was to help with the thousands of Americans who were stranded, without homes or electricity (or landlines) and therefore were needing that extra hand in order to find new jobs, find their loved ones, and rebuild their lives in the wake of the disaster.

After the Hurricane stopped hitting headlines and the lives of those affected were slowly starting to be rebuilt from the rubble, the free mobile phone aspect of the Lifeline Program never really got removed, or given another glance.  In fact, the rules of engagement remained, but because it was done on an honor system basis during the Hurricane Katrina situation, when the free mobile phones were released to the public and not just the victims of Hurricane Katrina, that never seemed to change.

That is when the fraud began to happen and money literally began to leak out of the system in waste and lies. People would simply hear through word of mouth that the government was handing out free mobile phones, as long as you simply told them that you were living at 135% of the poverty line or that you were waiting to become a recipient of one of the state or federal-run assistance programs. People started applying for the free mobile phones by the thousands, and overzealous and greedy private carrier companies started rushing through the approval process, not caring whether the applicant was telling the truth or not, in order to receive their subsidy checks from the Universal Service Fund.

Private mobile carrier companies started cashing in on this untapped market. Costs were extremely low for them on their end, which didn’t matter because with every Lifeline account holder they approved, the Universal Service Fund and the FCC were sending them checks that more than made up for their overhead costs to begin with. Private carrier companies that were partnering up with Lifeline were now making profits in the millions off a program that was designed to help the poor have a second chance in life and was funded by the middle-class Americans who were now not only paying for their own phone plans but also for the phone plans of the poor in addition to profiting the rich. Who is winning here?

With all of the negative press surrounding the Lifeline Program, it seems that although it is benefiting millions of American households in the United States today, it is also making billionaires even richer. It is as though we have regressed back into the days of Kings and Queens and the middle-class is paying taxes to line the pockets of the extremely financially advantaged Royal class.

Companies were shelling out phones for free on site to applicants before their backgrounds were checked and approved to be eligible for the Lifeline Program.  Melchior, the journalist who did her groundwork in trying to see how “hard’’ it would be for someone who was living well above the poverty line to receive a free Lifeline phone, was shocked to discover that it was relatively easy, even now with all of the FCC’s supposed changes and tightening of rules and regulations, to receive 3 free mobile phones. On top of that, she only received one letter from a private mobile carrier saying that she was not eligible of the six different application forms that she had placed. Something is obviously not being regulated correctly or efficiently here.

There has been even more scrutiny after a hidden camera caught many of the mobile carriers handing out free Lifeline phones to paid actors who were stating that they would be selling their free phones for cash, heroin, or shoes and bags.

It seems that the only people who are suffering here are the middle-class who are shelling out money in order to help the poor. Instead, they are only lining the pockets of the rich.

Perhaps of the $2.1 billion US dollars that has been spent this year on the Lifeline Program, some of that money could go toward establishing and properly policing policies that would ensure that this type of fraudulent activity at the corporate level ceases to continue.

Return to our homepage.

With the recent journal article about a journalist who acquired, quite easily, several Lifeline free mobile phones even though she is living far above the required 135% of the poverty line in order to be eligible for the Lifeline Program, more ripples have been sent through the public about the Lifeline Program. Is this program truly addressing the needs of the poor Americans, or has it gone out of control?

Jeff Sessions, Republican Senator of Alabama, has been publicly applying pressure onto the Federal Communications Commission about the efficacy of the rules and regulations of the Lifeline Program. Sessions recently wrote in a public letter to the CEO of the Federal Communications Commission:

“Crucially, participation in the program is supposed to be limited to those who have an income that is at or below 135% of the poverty level or participate in one of the many federal assistance programs, such as SNAP or Medicaid. Federal rules limit Lifeline phones to one per household,” Sessions, the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, wrote. “I am concerned that these basic, but fundamental, rules are not being enforced.”

The Senator continued to voice his concerns about the amount of money that the Lifeline Program is currently budgeting for the free mobile phones. It was in the hundreds of millions of US dollars annually and has now reached $1.2 billion US dollars with the Obama Administration, a fact that maybe Obama opponents have been cheerily using in the media in order to gain favor for the opposition.

Sessions’ biggest concern was the fact that there are still being cases of duplicate accounts and lack of policing for background checks for applicants of the Lifeline Program. With the recent journal article about the journalist, Melchior, outlining how she received not one but several free mobile phones without needing to show real proof of her annual income, which was far above the poverty line, the FCC’s claims on their audits of suspicious accounts and their strapping down on background checks seems to be null and void.

“It is important that all federal programs be effectively administered and that these programs adhere to the highest standards in order to protect the funds provided by the American people. The news article suggests serious flaws in this program. These public concerns must be addressed,” Sessions is quoted to have said.

Let’s hope that the CEO of the Federal Communications Commission has some answers for Sessions and for the American public. The Lifeline Program is a great idea in theory, but it obviously needs to have a few loose ends tied up in order for it to be just as great in practice.

Return to our homepage.

When Michelle Dowery told everyone on national television that President Obama gave everybody free mobile phones – at least, in her words, “every minority got a phone’’– there were headlines everywhere calling the Lifeline free mobile phones “Obama phones’’. (video below)

Unfortunately, she was wrong about that. President Reagan started the Lifeline Program in the 1980s. However, fortunately for Obama, the timing of this could not have been better, politically speaking, as it increased his popularity amongst certain populations of the voting public. However, the downside is that it has also caused huge speculation on the amount of money that has been spent on the Lifeline Program since Obama took his seat in the White House.

Now, in Alabama, there are thousands of people who are recipients of the Lifeline free mobile phones. However, there has been a lot of fraud associated with the Lifeline mobile phones, partially due to the lack of policing of the regulations, private mobile companies and their overzealous marketing, and individuals trying to scam a truly great social assistance program. Many of those people are living in the state of Alabama.

The Federal Communications Commission is cracking down on the Lifeline Program, double checking suspicious accounts, auditing companies, and tightening up on the rules and regulations. The FCC has now asserted that everyone applying has to show official documentation that outlines their involvement in either a state or federal-run social assistance program or is living at 135% or below the poverty line. In addition, all approved Lifeline account holders must re-apply every year in order to verify that they are still eligible for this program and that their financial status has not changed. In addition, there is going to be a central online database that is accessible by all private mobile carriers and the FCC to ensure that there are no more duplicate account holders, as there is a one-household-one-phone rule that is currently being policed quite strictly.

So far, 1.5 million duplicate accounts have been discovered and cancelled. These new rules will save approximately $180 million US dollars.

Currently in the state of Alabama, one in every 23 residents is using the Lifeline free mobile phone. That is a huge percentage of the Alabama population that is living at or below 135% of the state poverty line or is a participant in another social assistance program.

With such a high demand of the Lifeline Program, it is obvious that there is a need for social assistance programs such as this in order to give those living at the poverty line the opportunity to create a better life for themselves and their families. With all the scrutiny that the Lifeline Program is facing, yet being at its highest membership in all of the years that it has been around, particularly since the 2008 credit crash, there is a need to clear the air on many fronts.

The FCC is doing well on its word by making sure that they are cracking down on fraudulent activity. We hope that this paves the way to creating the Lifeline Program that was intended, not a free for all for anyone who has the need to take advantage of a system that is designed to help, not create crime.