Free Cell Phone Service - The down-low entitlement

As a hard-working, tax-paying American, it will no doubt warm your heart to know that the demoralising bite taken out of your paycheck each week - in the form of local, state, and federal taxes - not only finances free housing, healthcare, food, and cash benefits, but also free Cell-Phone service for millions of disabled or disadvantaged government dependents whose qualifying disabilities and deprivations may include: alcoholism, drug addiction, morbid obesity, clinical depression, and other character flaws resulting in chronic unemployability.

Let me tell you all about those free Cell-Phones! (*occasionaly using humour to describe a very real program.)

Where do I go to get my free Cell-Phone and minutes?

You need only visit the websites of the several telecommunications conglomerates who have contracted with the U.S. Federal Government to provide a free Cell-Phone and minutes to the 'underprivileged.'  The two majour providers of this technological equivolent to Food Stamps and Welfare are Safelink, and Assurance Wireless (a subsidary of Virgin Mobile/Sprint-Nextel.) *Later, we’ll go into some depth about Safelink's parent corporation. The websites of both companies will ask you to provide a zip code to see if your state is among those participating in the government-supported free Cell-Phone program.

SafeLink Wireless currently offers 'qualifying' customers free cellular service in the following states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, DC, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

States where free cellular service will soon be available: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming.

*Assurance Wireless does not provide a list of States where it's services are available. You will be told only if your state qualifies or not after providing your Zip Code.

Do I qualify for a free Cell-Phone?

If any of the following entitlements or qualifications are supporting your care-free, down-trodden lifestyle, you could be talking to your boyfriend in prison, your parole officer, or ordering crack cocaine with your free Cell-Phone minutes within 14 business days!

    Federal Public Housing Assistance / Section 8
    Food Stamps
    Medicaid
    Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
    Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
    National School Lunch (free program only)
    Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
    Lifeline Utility Credit/Tenants Lifeline
    Pharmaceutical Assist to Aged & Disabled
    General Assistance (Welfare)
    Household income at or below 150% of FPG . For seniors ONLY.

*Additional eligibility criteria may apply to residents of federally recognized tribal lands.

Tell me about my phone and Service

Once you have selected an approved free Cell-Phone provider and provided evidence of your poverty-stricken existence or illegal immigrant status, you will receive a FREE Kyocera Jax Cell-Phone (a $14.95 value!) by mail.

You will be entitled to 250 free minutes each month. Any Minutes you do not use will roll-over automatically. Just imagine how many unused minutes would acrue after a six month stint at the county jail as your free Cell-Phone sits unused at home! Features such as caller ID, call waiting and voicemail are all also included with your service so that you don’t miss any ‘important’ calls. If you run out of minutes before the end of the month, and need additional Minutes to communicate with your Welfare Worker, court-appointed attorney, parole officer, or immigration lawyer, you can buy TracFone Airtime Cards at any TracFone retailer (Walmart, Walgreens, Family Dollar, RadioShack, Albertos Bodega and Check Cashing,... etc). And for  your convenience, SafeLink Airtime Cards will soon be available.

Signing up for SafeLink and Assurance Wireless Service does not cost anything. There are no contracts, no recurring fees and no monthly charges like those imposed on the suckers ‘paying’ for their Cell-phone service.

Who pays for my free Cell-Phone Service?

The companies providing your Free Cell-Phone service are paid 10 dollars per month to cover the cost of 250 Cell phone minutes through the Lifeline Assistance program supported by the Universal Service Fund. The Universal Service Fund is a government slush fund financed by the monthly Cell-Phone surcharges (taxes) paid by the people who pay - through the nose  - for their Cell-Phone service. Mostly American citizens with jobs, who pay their full rent or a mortage, and are lucky to take home two thirds of their paycheck each week.

Good news, ReachOut Wireless (Nexus/Google) is now in the game. They, and other minor players account for 8 million Welfare phones in circulation in 39, soon to be all 50 states.  At  ten dollars per user per month, that works out to 80 million dollars per month taken from the pockets of paying Cell-Phone customers and transferred to the pockets of giant multinational telecommiuncations giants like Sprint-Nextel, and Safelink, a subdiary of TracFone, itself a subdiary of América Móvil.

*Here's the 'more later' I promised about Safelink. Safelink, the Free Cell-Phones for the poor service, is a subsidiary of América Móvil/Telmex, the global telecommunications behemoth owned by Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim, declared in 2011 by Forbes Magazine to be the wealthiest man in the world, with an estimated fortune of 74 billion, and growing. Carlos Slim is a monopolist who controls 90% of Mexico's land-line market, charging amongst the highest usage fees in the world in a country (Mexico) where per capita income does not surpass $14,500 a year, and nearly 17% of the population lives in poverty.  Slim's wealth is roughly equivalent  to  5% of Mexico's annual economic output.

*From Wikipedia: "According to Professor Celso Garrido, an economist at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,  Slim's domination of Mexico's conglomerates prevents the growth of smaller companies, resulting in a shortage of paying jobs and forcing many Mexicans to seek better lives north of the Rio Grande."

So, in short, the American Cell-phone/land-line user is being taxed not only to provide the luxury of free Cell-phone service to American citizens deemed too impoverished to pay for it, but also to provide billions in revenue to a foreign businessman whose crony-capitalist business-practices are contributing to the serious problem of uncontrolled illegal mass-migration from Mexico to the United States.

Free Cell-Phone service to the poor seems to be at it's root not only another ridiculously absurd socialist entitlement program, but also another glaring example of crony-capitalist mobsterism through which billions of dollars are being transferred from the wallets and purses of the American taxpayer and worker into the coffers of corporations who have successfully lobbied our corrupt politicians for this bottom to top wealth-redistribution scam.

I don't know about you, but this free Cell-Phone scheme makes me mad as hell. Why don't more of us know about it , and why aren't more of us screaming about it?

*disclaimer. In an effort to remain fair and balanced I must point out that The Universal Service Fund (USF) was created by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1997 to meet Congressional universal service goals as mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The president of the United States in 1996 was William Jefferson Clinton not Barack Hussein Obama. So efforts to dub this free Cell Phone service ‘the Obamaphone’  - whilst entertaining and satisfying – would not be accurate.

Safelink free Cell-Phones. Check it out for yourself here.

JH