Ajit Pai’s FCC, which is by its own description, taking a weed-whacker to the last 40 years of broadcast regulation, moved to rapidly dismantle the Lifeline modernization program put into place by his predecessor.
Tag Archives: lifeline
Communications Safety Net: Lifeline
Posted by on September 13th, 2013
New America Foundation
Often disparaged as “Obamaphones”, the Lifeline program (which was actually started during the Reagan administration) provides subsidized communication services to low-income people, enabling critical safety, health and job search services.
This DC panel (heavily populated by Californians, including Sacramento congresswoman Doris Matsui and CA Public Utility Commissioner Catherine Sandoval), deconstructs the myths about Lifeline and defines why we all need to care about affordable communications for all.
Here in California, the Public Utilies Commission is overseeing Lifeline modernization and recently fought off an attempt from legislators in Sacramento to gut the Lifeline update.
Lifeline Story Bank
Posted by Media Alliance, TURN, Greenlining Institute, Milestone Consulting on March 2nd, 2016
As the FCC debates the modernization of the Lifeline telephone subsidy program to include Internet access for the first time, Media Alliance and the Media Action Grassworks Network (Mag-Net) are taking action to make sure the agency hears from the program’s users, its potential users in the future, and the communities most impacted by lack of broadband access.
The Lifeline Story Bank will collect written testimonies, pictures and short audio or video clips and deliver them directly to the policy makers and the press to make sure DC just doesn’t just talk to themselves. Continue reading Lifeline Story Bank
Connected: Poverty Stretches the Digital Divide
A series of studies by John Dunbar and Jacob Fenton at the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University on the links between poverty, rural life and lack of broadband access.
Connecting the Issues: USF Reform and Social Justice
Don’t get how extending Lifeline service to broadband makes a better world?
Here is Mag-net’s analysis of why Universal Service Fund Reform is a critical issue for a more just country. Continue reading Connecting the Issues: USF Reform and Social Justice