FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is emphasizing the critical role of the Internet in modern life, communication, education and employment. The Federal Communications Commission is redefining broadband access as a new "lifeline" feature in addition to the landline and wireless phone access many low-income American familes already receive.
For 30 years, low-income households have received assistance from the federal government in paying their phone bills. Now, Wheeler is proposing the same subsidized access to advanced telecommunications services, ensuring that all Americans can afford broadband Internet service.
"Broadband is every bit as important today as plain old phone service was 30 years ago," said Gene Kimmelman, CEO of Public Knowledge and a former Justice Department official.
Currently, more than 95 percent of households belong to the $150,000-and-above income bracket that have broadband or high-speed Internet service. However, only 48 percent belonging to the $25,000-and-less income bracket have the service in their homes.
Under Wheeler's proposal, low-income recipients will be able to choose between phone service, Internet service or even a combination of both. This will extend the current coverage of the Lifeline program that was started in 1985 that has a monthly credit of $9.25.
The costs of the expanded program will be covered by the universal service fee that consumers pay on phone bills issued by landline telephone companies, wireless telephone service providers and Internet phone service providers.
In 2014, at least 12 million households had been served by Lifeline at the cost of $1.7 billion, been paid for by surcharges on customer telephone bills.
Wheeler wanted "an overhaul of the way we determine eligibility for Lifeline to the low-income consumers most in need of the support, to eliminate the gap in opportunity between the Internet broadband haves and have-nots."
As Wheeler tweeted, "Today, broadband is necessary for full participation in society. The current divide between digital "haves" and "have-nots" is unacceptable."
To be eligible, a household should have an income that falls at or below 135 percent of the federal poverty line. Participants could also participate in other programs such as food stamps, Medicaid and free school lunch.
Some broadband service providers are already offering budget-friendly Internet to households that are in the school lunch program or on food stamps. There are providers, such as Comcast, that offer an Internet Essential program at a monthly cost of $10. The program has however been criticized for very slow speeds of 5MB per second and for extending its eligibility to a low number of people.
Broadband, as defined by the FCC, should have download speeds of up to 25MB per second and higher.
The new proposal is scheduled to undergo voting on June 18. A final vote is expected to be achieved before the end of the year.
