From the Benton Blog: FCC’s Low-Income Phone Reform Needs to Connect and Tie Eligibility to People, Not Housing

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission is poised to reform and modernize the Lifeline phone program that was created to help low-income household afford phone service. The reform and modernization is expected to move the program beyond traditional landline service to better accommodate wireless phone service and to set a foundation to move to broadband access for poor people. Yet, the reform could also discriminate against the very people the program was designed to help. How so? The FCC is considering limiting the Lifeline benefit to people with a unique residential street address.

The federal telephone Lifeline program has played a crucial role in keeping tens of millions of low-income households connected to employers, medical personnel, and families by making local phone service more affordable. This has enhanced the value of the phone network as more people are reachable by phone. Instead of tying the Lifeline phone service to a building, the FCC should reform and modernize the program to reflect current lifestyles of people. There is still time to make this needed improvement to the reform. We urge the FCC to make the connection.

[Wein is a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center]