Federal Government Spent $1.6 Billion Last Year on Free Cell Phones

Is there anything that hasn’t become a “right” these days? Good grief, last year the federal government spent $1.6 billion on over 12 million free cell phones. Worse yet, those of us who pay for our phone service got to foot the bill for it.

Last year, a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts. The program, overseen by the FCC and intended to help low-income Americans, is popular for obvious reasons, with participation rising steeply since 2008, when the government paid $772 million for phones and monthly bills. But observers complain that the program suffers from poor oversight, in which phones go to people who don’t qualify, and hundreds of thousands of those who do qualify have more than one phone.

Last summer, a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review story shed some light on a government program that relatively few Americans knew existed. (Read more about it here.) The Lifeline program provides low-income Americans with free cell phones (basic ones such as those made by Tracfone, not smartphones) and covers up to 250 free minutes each month. As many as 5.5 million residents in Pennsylvania alone could qualify for the program, which is funded primarily by the Universal Service Fund fee added to the bills of land-line and wireless customers.

The article goes on to note that the fees imposed on service providers are passed along to consumers. And this free cell phone program more than doubled since 2008.

Via Weasel Zipper

Tags: federal government, free cell phones