The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) just announced a re-vamping of its “Lifeline” plan available to assist the low-income families in the US with phone service to include a subsidy for broadband internet services. according to business-standard.com.
Saying that internet access is “a prerequisite for full participation” in today’s society, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, in a blog post with fellow commissioner Mignon Clyburn, posted the new plan will help to close the affordability gap for low-income Americans that need to have internet access. The post adds the biggest reason that this group of citizens did not have home internet access is the cost, and only half of households in the country in the lowest income segments were subscribers to broadband services.
The FCC plans to vote on the measure on March 31, which would allow a monthly subsidy of $9.25 for fixed or mobile internet service, and also set standards for internet speeds. Some question if the subsidy is enough to convince those struggling to make ends meet that the service is worthwhile.
Wheeler noted, “Internet access has become a prerequisite for full participation in our economy and our society, but nearly one in five Americans is still not benefiting from the opportunities made possible by the most powerful and pervasive platform in history.”
Still others suspect the program will be plagued with fraud and abuse, and claim the “Lifeline” program already has problems with such issues. Wheeler responds by saying the new plan will call for an “eligibility verifier,” which he says would be a powerful check against waste and fraud. The program would provide checks and balances by using data from other government programs, such as Medicaid and food assistance programs.
Payment for the new program would come from a tax on telecom carriers known as the Universal Service Fund, but Daniel Lyons, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, called the funding base “unstainable,” and recommended the FCC should seek a federal budget item instead. He added in a blog the budget item would subject the program to congressional oversight and impose a sense of fiscal accountability on the plan.
Whether low-income families will see broadband internet as a necessity to improving their lifestyles will remain to be determined