Free cell phones here

There’s no excuse in California for low-income families not having a phone, as visitors to San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency offices on Union Plaza Court in Oceanside can attest. Monday through Friday, one of three companies aggressively vies for sidewalk space and the attention of low-income families visiting the Medi-Cal and welfare offices.

Under an FCC program, people who classify as low-income may obtain a free smartphone under a program known as Lifeline Assistance. (Conservatives have labeled the program “Obamaphones.”)

Because California further subsidizes the federal program, seven firms in the state can offer different degrees of service. Budget Mobile, which on November 4 had their pop-up shade booth set up at the corner of South Oceanside Boulevard at Union Plaza Court, also offers unlimited talk and text, free Wi-Fi connections, and free international calling through the internet.

California is one of 35 states that offer free cell phones through Lifeline Assistance, but only California and one other state subsidize the program so firms may offer free services. Currently only three firms, including Budget Mobile, offer unlimited talk and text. Others companies may charge a five- or ten-dollar monthly free or have limits on data or airtime. Budget Mobile’s service provider is T-Mobile.

“All one has to do is show us a photo ID and any government benefits card and they walk away with a new phone,” said Mark, the manager of the Budget Mobile booth. The program includes benefactors of WIC, Cal-WORKS, school lunch programs, Section 8 housing, or tribal assistance, and ten other government assistance programs.

“If someone isn’t on government benefits, they can also show us their last three pay stubs to qualify,” said Mark. The program’s website indicates a family of four earning less than $3,017 a month would qualify.

Mark added that when things get better for a family, and the assistance program stops, their free phone’s SIM card is transferable into one’s own private cell phone.

But the best part of his job, said Mark, is when he can offer a job to a struggling provider for a family, to help distribute phones. “We’ve hired several people walking into these offices who needed help,” said Mark.

The program is not without its detractors. A September 9 article in the San Francisco Chronicle,” headlined “As subsidized phone program grows, so do its costs,” reported that as of July 31, “2.2 million households enrolled, two-thirds in wireless.”

Subsidized phone service used to cover landlines only, until a 2012 California Public Utilities Commission decision extended the program to cover cell phones. Californians that pay their own phone bill help finance the program through an added fee on phone bills.