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The Affordable Connectivity Program Kept Them Online. What Now?
(www.wired.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Oh hey, I heard the funding for that dried up. ... Because I went looking for ways to not spend $50/mo for a working phone while I'm sleeping in somebody's closet and have no income ๐ Happen to know people who don't even have the closet, but I'm sure they don't need phone service either.
[Maximum Sarcasm] I'm sure the money's going somewhere more important, though.
Hey, how many gig workers are barely scraping by and need programs like this or everybody's Uber Eats orders are gonna uber eat dirt? Just a thought. Maybe taking a little care of the people at the bottom who prop up everything else is kinda asinine to not do. Grr, I say.
The Lifeline program is still available. The way they explain it is confusing, but the "discount" covers the complete cost of service for most Lifeline providers, so it works out to free. You just need to be receiving any federal public assistance -- Medicaid, food stamps, TANF, anything.
ACP was more of a broadband program with phone service attached, Lifeline is more of a phone program with some data attached. If you happen to have an unlocked phone, many lifeline carriers support bringing your own device to some extent.
https://www.fcc.gov/lifeline-consumers