It seems like they’ve been looking into it, studying it, debating it, and arguing about it for years. But the Federal Communications Commission last Tuesday finally did what we’ve been urging it to do for many months –- it approved an affordable internet-for-the-poor program similar to Lifeline, its existing free government cell phone program.

To be completely accurate, the program isn’t free. Not yet, anyway. Participants in the program, called Connect America, will be required to pay $10 per month for high-speed broadband service. But the program is so closely allied with the Lifeline free cell phone program that we expect the $10 monthly fee to be dropped in the future. Until then, the highly discounted $10 per month must be considered a huge step forward.

The program, which we predict will eventually be called Lifeline Internet, was officially approved last Tuesday on a unanimous 3-0 vote of the Federal Communications Commission.

Critics ask how a program like this can be adequately funded in today’s difficult economy. The FCC has the answer. They are mandating significant changes to the existing Lifeline program that will eliminate massive fraud and the savings will more than pay for the new benefits.

Specifically, they have called for the creation of a new national database that will prevent participants from getting multiple free cell phones from multiple companies.

The FCC is also cracking down on fraud by limiting the Lifeline program to one phone –- landline or cell –- per household. Consumers will have to choose between one or the other. They can’t have both.

It has already begun auditing Lifeline vendors to ferret out fraud. It’s already found and eliminated almost 270,000 fraudulent subscriptions in 12 states. Mind you, they found 270,000 cases of fraud out of 3.6 million subscribers in those states, saving $33 million for the program. Each vendor will now be independently audited every other year to find other cases of fraud. Extrapolate those numbers out over the entire country and the savings really begin to add up – savings that will then be used to fund the cheap internet service.

In fact, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski spoke positively of the changes and predicts that they will save as much as $2 billion over the next few years. He believes that will be more than enough to fund cheap broadband services for the poor.

It’s a small start, but the FCC will budget $25 million to begin a pilot program that will reassign these Lifeline funds so that they pay for the new affordable internet service instead of for the free government cell phone service.

“Broadband has gone from being a luxury to a necessity in the 21st century,” Genachowski said.

We applaud the FCC’s vote and the formal approval of this new program. It’s just what America’s poor need in today’s world. Many companies now accept job applications only online, so this will help the poor land jobs for which they wouldn’t otherwise be considered. Many schools demand that homework be done on the internet, so this will allow children in low income families to compete on a level playing field with more affluent students. It will also allow their parents to communicate with teachers more easily.
The roots of the Lifeline program go back to the 1930s, but it expanded from offering discounts on landlines to offering free government cell phones thanks to the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Its growth has been nothing short of phenomenal thanks to the addition of cell phones to the program.

In fact, critics complain that Lifeline is exploding in size. The Lifeline fund has grown from $667 million in 2000 to $1.3 billion in 2010. We estimate that it may top $2 billion when the final numbers are in for 2011. We also estimate that as many as 10 million Americans may now have free government cell phones thanks to Lifeline.

But now, thanks to the FCC’s efforts to root out those who take advantage of this program unfairly, cheap broadband internet service will soon be available to the poor across America. (And as we said earlier, we anticipate that the program will be made free in the not too distant future.)

To qualify for Lifeline’s free government cell phone or the new cheap internet program, you must already participate in any one of a number of other government aid programs, such as the National School Lunch Program, food stamps (SNAP), public housing assistance, Medicaid, Section 8 housing, Supplemental Security Income, various Home Energy Assistance Programs, and other programs. You can also qualify if your household income is no more than 135% of federal poverty guidelines (and as much as 150% in some states).

Source: Bloomberg

School2Home is a pilot program rolling out across California that’s designed to reduce the technology gap between rich and poor. It’s the gap that’s also known as the “digital divide.”

The program started in Southern California’s Los Angeles and Riverside county school districts and has now expanded to Northern California’s Oakland Unified School District.

The problem this program solves is obvious: Work in many classes requires home access to computers and high speed broadband internet. Unfortunately, many low income families can’t afford these tools. So how can those children learn the skills they’ll need in an increasingly technological world if they don’t have access to computers and high-speed internet? How can they succeed in an increasingly digital future? How can they escape poverty in the 21st century if they only learn to use 20th century tools?

But the program doesn’t begin and end with the students. Far from it. Teachers are trained to integrate technology into their classrooms and lessons. And children can’t get their computers until their parents complete the first of three training sessions.

School2Home has set an ambitious goal: To give computers to more than 500 low-performing middle schools and 400,000 students across California.

If you’re wondering how School2Home can afford such an expensive giveaway, the answer is simple. Generous public and private groups such the California Emerging Technology Fund, L.A. Unified, AT&T, Comcast, Google, IBM and Verizon have all made major contributions. For example, AT&T and Verizon are contributing more than $60 million to get the program off the ground.

Although we certainly appreciate the effort and the money, do not confuse AT&T’s and Verizon’s their contribution with magnanimity. They were actually strong-armed into making thw contributions by the California Public Utilities Commission. The PUC ordered the establishment of the California Emerging Technology Fund and mandated the contributions before it would approve the mergers of SBC and AT&T and Verizon and MCI back in 2005. But no matter what the companies’ motivations may have been, they have pitched in enthusiastically.

And how does School2Home define itself? The organization’s website says, “School2Home recognizes the equal importance of the school and home environments as places for learning, and works to enrich student opportunity by creating stronger connections between the two. Its large scale, evidence-based approach, and public-private partnership make it an unprecedented effort, both in California and nationally.”

As we said at the top of this article, School2Home is currently available only in certain test schools in Los Angeles, Riverside and Oakland, California schools. But we’re confident it will be successful and quickly roll out statewide. We can only hope that others states look at their success and roll out similar programs.

We’re behind you 100%, School2Home. And we’re behind the kids 110%.

Please let us know if we can do anything to help.

Program information: School2Home

The Federal Communications Commission is getting with the times. It’s finally figured out that landline telephones are yesterday’s technology. As a result, it has approved $4.5 billion to bring broadband Internet to needy and rural Americans. The plan is called Connect America.

Surprisingly, politics were put aside and the Commission voted unanimously in favor of the proposal. All four members vigorously endorsed diverting billions of dollars that had heretofore been used to landline telephones in the nation’s hinterlands.

It is estimated that one out of twenty Americans still has no internet access. This FCC vote will bring cell phones and broadband connections to those households. This won’t be cheap internet, but free high-speed broadband.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski led the charge for the broadband fund. He insists that it will help extend broadband internet – what he calls the “infrastructure” of the future – to every American.

If the FCC’s projections hold true, more 18 million Americans without high speed broadband internet access today will be connected by landline broadband or state-of-the-art mobile services thanks to this program.

Getting everyone to agree, even on a program as worthy as this one, is impossible.

On one hand, the FCC vote was lauded by some lawmakers, consumer groups and some Internet service providers. They contend that federal government programs usually trail consumer trends by a considerable margin. They argue that more than 30% of Americans have eliminated their landlines and replaced them with cellphones.

On the other hand, some consumer groups and phone companies disagree. Why? They dislike the fact that the FCC plan could lead to higher monthly telephone bills for consumers.

The Washington Post quotes Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge as saying, “We share the concerns of other consumer organizations that the commission’s actions will lead to higher prices at a time when the average American is watching every penny.”

Commissioner Genachowski discounts those concerns and insists that bills will not increase.
Cable and cell phone companies have their own problems with the plan. They don’t like language in the plan that seems to favor traditional phone companies.

Michael Powell, a former FCC chairman who heads the cable industry lobby group National Cable & Telecommunications Association expressed his concerns to the Washington Post:

“While we are disappointed in the commission’s apparent decision to ignore its longstanding principle of competitive neutrality and provide incumbent telephone companies an unwarranted advantage for broadband support, we remain hopeful that the order otherwise reflects the pro-consumer principles of fiscal discipline and technological neutrality that will bring accountability and greater efficiency to the existing subsidy system.”

The plan comes as some Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been questioning the success of federal loan guarantees and grants in “new economy” projects such as clean energy and broadband Internet.

Our opinion? Any program that helps bring free or inexpensive wireless and broadband service to Americans gets our support.

Way to go, FCC.

Source: Washington Post

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski wants to expand Lifeline Assistance, a program that offers free and discounted telephone service to low-income Americans, to include broadband Internet service.

The Washington Post quotes Genachowski as saying, “The program is outdated, focused on phone service when high-speed Internet has become our vital communications platform.”

The Chairman wants to crack down on fraud and inefficiencies in the current telephone program and use the savings to fund free internet service.

The FCC estimates that the reforms will save approximately $2 billion over the next two years. And that may be more than enough to pay for the free internet service.

According to the proposal, the FCC will establish its own pilot program in conjunction with existing broadband providers and use the savings from the budget reforms to fund the effort. It will also determine how to fold the free internet plan into the existing Lifeline Assistance program to promote internet usage among lower income Americans.

The expanded program is built on the premise that the internet is vital to modern life and that low income Americans who don’t have access to broadband internet capability may be left behind in the future. Therefore, Genachowski noted, the program will be “modernized to meet the needs of low-income Americans in a broadband world.”

Lifeline is a little known, but rapidly growing program mandated by Congress. It offers both discounted landlines and free cell phones, and 250 free minutes per month to low income Americans. According to the latest available information, you qualify for Lifeline is you already participate in one of a number of other government assistance programs, such as Medicaid, SSI, food stamps, Section 9 housing and others, or if your household income falls below between 135-150% of the federal poverty guidelines.

The Lifeline Assistance program is funded by the Universal Service Fund, a line item that appears on each phone bill in America each month. A few cents here and a couple dollars there all add up to billions of dollars that can be spent to make sure everyone gets to participate in the technology of the future.

Some companies are already offering cheap internet to low income Americans. These programs provide high-speed broadband for under $10 a month, and also offer a computer for just $150. Comcast’s program is called Internet Essentials and CenturyLink calls their’s Internet Basics. Furthermore, a public-private partnership of the FCC and cable companies will later this year offer a similar deal, called Connect to Compete, to families who have children on the National Free School Lunch Program.

The Digital Divide is closely as a quickening pace.

Source: Washington Post

CNN’s Randi Kaye interviews Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen about the company’s new Internet Essentials program in this video.

According to the United States Census Bureau, huge numbers of American families do not yet have access to the internet. That includes 47.2% of Hispanic households, 45.5% of African-American households, 29.5% of white households and 19.5% of Asian households.

Cable giant Comcast has launched a new program called Internet Essentials to solve that problem. The company is charging just $9.95 per month and its goal is to make the internet more affordable for these low income Americans. Let’s call Internet Essentials exactly what it is: cheap internet service.

Qualifying for the $9.95 per month internet service is simple: Any family with a child in the free National School Lunch Program (NSLP) automatically is automatically eligible.

Comcast is now offering Internet Essentials in more than 4,000 school districts in 39 states and the District of Columbia. The company estimates that as many as 3 million households are eligible in its service areas.

As astounding as that $9.95 per month price sounds, it’s just the beginning. Comcast is also making it possible for qualifying families to buy a computer for just $150. And there are none of those annoying activation or equipment fees, either.

“The basic life skills, the enhancement to the educational experience, access to healthcare, access to vocational opportunities, are equalized through access to the internet,” Cohen noted. “…I think that’s the public policy underpinning, if you will, of all of the efforts that exist in America to try and close the digital divide – to equalize opportunity, to level the playing field, and give every kid in America the opportunity to compete and to succeed regardless of the zip code where they live or the income level of their parents.”

There are a couple limitations to the program – you cannot have been a Comcast internet subscriber for at least 90 days and you cannot have any overdue Comcast bills or unreturned equipment.

Bravo, Comcast, bravo. (And we’re not talking about the cable channel.)

For further information, go to CheapInternet.com

CheapInternet.com, a new website, is dedicated to showing low income Americans how they can get affordable internet service.

“Low income Americans are now eligible for ridiculously inexpensive high-speed broadband internet and powerful computers,” said Mark Henry, editor of CheapInternet.com. “It’s one of America’s best kept secrets and we’re here to spread the word.”

If you’re among the millions of Americans who can’t afford the expensive high speed internet services commonly available, CheapInternet.com is the website for you. It reveals how you can get cheap high-speed internet for just $9.95 a month and how to get a Microsoft Office-loaded, Series 7 PC for only $150.

CheapInternet.com calls itself the official, go-to source for all the exciting, new, inexpensive internet service options that make broadband internet affordable for everyone.

Cheap internet service has never been more important than it is in today’s economy. Millions and millions of Americans are suffering terribly in this great recession. The official unemployment rate is at near record levels and yet many economists say the real unemployment rate is actually much higher than what’s reported.

“CheapInternet.com is the place to find all the latest deals, all the latest details and all the latest ways for you to take advantage of these exciting cheap internet service programs,” Henry added. “If you can’t afford internet service, you can’t afford not to visit CheapInternet.com.”

For more information visit CheapInternet.com.