(credit: robby-T)
The Federal Communications Commission will soon vote on a plan to give low-income Americans $9.25 a month to purchase home Internet service or cellular data. The plan would change the existing Lifeline program, which has provided phone subsidies since 1985, to focus on providing access to broadband.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn wrote in a blog post today that millions of Americans don't have Internet service because they can't afford it. "Only half of the nation’s households in the lowest income tier subscribe to broadband," Wheeler and Clyburn wrote. "And 43 percent of all people who don’t subscribe to broadband at home say that affordability is the reason. Of the low-income consumers who have subscribed to mobile broadband, 44 percent have had to cancel or suspend their service due to financial constraints and for those whose only access to the Internet is their smartphone, 48 percent have had to cancel or shut off service for a period of time due to financial hardship."
Wheeler and Clyburn released details of the plan today and said the commission will vote on it on March 31.
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