Do you have a hard time hooking up now that you've lost your job and don't get up until noon? Is your porn stash in need of an upgrade? If you still have nude pictures of Anna Nicol Smith on your hard drive the answer is probably yes. Luckily help maybe on the way. From freegovernmentcellphones comes this encouraging post:
"It took the government a long time to move from helping people afford landline phones to helping them get a cell phone. The next logical step is subsidized high-speed internet for the needy, and we hope it doesn't’t take as long for this step to occur as it did for the cell phone program. Unfortunately, the government is not yet directly offering free internet or discounted internet service, but, we see the FCC moving in the direction of getting the rural and the poor connected."
Free cell phones is a win-win proposition for the phone company and the users, although the taxpayers who are forced to fund this governmental munificence might be put off by the $162 per user annual cost, the phone companies get $10 per month for everyone they sign up. In Ohio about 600,000 deserving poor receive free cell phone service, up from 280,000 in 2008. The cost is up too for that same period from $30.4 million in 2008 to $58.9 million in 2010. If you think a program that gives away free phones and 250 minutes per month would be prone to abuse you are spot on. As there are at least five phone companies involved in this boondoggle some of the deserving poor sign up for all five and sell their extra phones on Craig's List. According to the Dayton Daily News about 26,000 Ohioans are abusing the Obamaphone program.
In Florida, Ocala Com refers to the abuse as "confusion", an almost inevitable paperwork snafu. And it could be the phone companies are to blame.
"It’s unclear if customers knew they should have received only one subsidy or whether it was intentional, according to the FCC order calling for the audit."
Just wait until free internet gets here!
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