Federal program buys cell phones for the poor, By Scott Canon, July 30, 2010, Kansas City Star: “A cell phone in every pocket. And for growing numbers, it’s free. ‘It’s a sign of the times,’ said Nicholas Eberstadt, a researcher at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and author of ‘The Poverty of ‘The Poverty Rate.” ‘When does a luxury become an absolute bare necessity?’ Roughly one in 10 American households qualifies for a direct phone subsidy. In a fast-growing number of states, including Missouri, that equates to a free cell phone. It is both news and history – the extension of longstanding telephone subsidies for the poor, and cell carriers taking advantage of virtually guaranteed profits. While cell companies see the federal Lifeline program as a way to scoop up hundreds of millions of dollars in business, the move has raised questions about the way Americans subsidize each other’s phone service. More than 2 million poor people have been given free handsets and prepaid cell service – albeit on the simplest of phones, often with barely an hour’s talk time per month – as wireless carriers scramble for a toehold with a new class of customers…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty