Obamaphone Event: ‘Lifeline Awareness Week’ in DC

District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray has proclaimed the second week in September to be “District of Columbia Lifeline Awareness Week” in an effort to sign up more people for taxpayer-funded phones. 

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“The goal of the Public Service Commission is to sign up as many eligible District consumers as possible,” Commissioner Joanne Doddy Fort said in a statement. “We hope that by raising awareness of the Lifeline Program, we can ensure that the District’s Economy II Service Program can reach more consumers. In today’s highly interconnected world, no one should be left out.”

In D.C. the Lifeline Program is known as Economy II Service and under the federal and local program District residents who participate or are eligible for certain public assistance programs are able to receive phone service through Verizon’s Economy II Service as a discounted rate of $3.00 a month or, for seniors, $1.00 a month plus applicable fees. 

The Lifeline Program, which is overseen by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has come under criticism from Republicans recently as the program’s cost has more than doubled, from $822 million in 2008 (when the FCC expanded the program to subsidize cell phones) to $2 billion in 2012, leading some to label the phones provided though the program “Obamaphones.”...

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