PSC May Add $5 Monthly Fee To Low-Income Phone Program
Nearly 800,000 of the poorest Georgians may have to pay a new $5 monthly fee for a federally subsidized phone.
The state Public Service Commission is expected to vote on the proposal Tuesday.
The PSC passed the $5 monthly fee earlier this year, but it was delayed and reworked after pushback from wireless companies. Commissioner Doug Everett has said the intention of the new version remains the same: cut down on fraud and abuse.
Critics, however, insist the fee is illegal and only hurts the poor.
Mitchell Brecher is an attorney for TracFone Wireless, which serves about 250,000 Georgians in the program.
“We don’t believe that a $5 charge would do anything other than weed out of the program thousands and thousands of people – the poorest people in the state – that are supposed to benefit from the program.”
Brecher said federal officials and the wireless companies have already addressed concerns about fraud and abuse over the last two years.
The Lifeline phone program started in 1984 under President Reagan. It provides low-income people with subsidized landline service or a monthly allotment of 250 wireless minutes.
A trade group of wireless companies sued the PSC earlier this year over the previous version of the fee. The group argues Georgia commissioners aren’t allowed to regulate what private companies charge customers.
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