Free Cell Phones for All | The Communication Blog

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Free Cell Phones for All

By Andrea Hollands


In the year 1984, a program was started for benefiting senior citizens as well as low income groups by giving them a means of communication to use during times of emergencies. This was started by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and with the telecommunication act of 1996 this program was further enhanced to become known as the Lifeline program.

TracFone Wireless is one such telecommunication company which sponsors the Safelink program by which they provide free cell phones along with a service of a fixed number of free minutes. It is entirely funded by the company itself and the taxpayers dollars are not used in any way for meeting the expenditure incurred. The senior cell phone plan was provided for anyone who qualified and they could opt either for Safelink or Lifeline both of which provided free phones in different states. One could chose according to the need and the provision in his state.

There were more than a million users of the Safelink program last year, thanks mainly due to the drastic economic situation. The Safelink program is offered in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan and Maine to mention a few. Other states benefiting from the program are DC, Delaware, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Mississippi.

About 1700 telecommunications organizations supply these kind of senior cell phone plans and among these TracFone Wireless has managed to make a big name for itself with the Safelink program. There are many skeptical people who wonder about the funding of the program and it routinely being scanned and designated as a free benefit being paid by the government. This is far from true as the company bears all the expenses of the phone as well as the service for the past few years and the government only endorses the program.

It is not a new federal program, as many rumors would have it. The Lifeline program has been in existence from the Reagan era which was around 25 years back. All that the program aims at is to give communication facility to all and more specifically to the weaker sections such as the lower income groups as well as senior citizens. TracFone has made this dream a reality for Americans with its senior cell phone plans.




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