FROM
THE BOING BOING SHOP
Ronald
Reagan created the Lifeline program, which gives low-income Americans a
$9.25/month subsidy to spend on one of: landline, broadband, or wireless
access.
The
vast majority of Lifeline recipients get their service through MVNOs (mobile
virtual network operators), who resell major carriers networks through a wide
variety of tailored packages targeted at people too poor for the big companies
to bother with.
Now,
Trump's FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, wants to force Lifeline users to buy access from
the big telcos, a move even those very same telcos think is bananas. And as a
group of US 10 US senators have pointed out, Pai offered no evidence to support
his contention that MNVOs strangle broadband investment (the FCC is only allowed
to act on the basis of documented evidence), and Pai's proposal would eliminate
the plans used by more than 70% of Lifeline recipients.
Access
to networked communications is a prerequisite for employment, education, family,
political and civic engagement and more. When Pai sharpens the digital divide by
maiming Lifeline, he is depriving the poorest people in America of a literal
lifeline.
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