WASHINGTON — The head of the Federal Communications Commission is proposing that the government agency expand a phone-subsidy program for the poor to include Internet access.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has emphasized that Internet access is a critical component of modern life, key education, communication, and finding and keeping a job.
With the Net-neutrality rules released earlier this year, the agency redefined broadband as a public utility, like the telephone, giving it stricter oversight on how online content gets to consumers.
Thursday’s proposal, which expands the Lifeline phone program to Internet service, aims to narrow the “digital divide” — the split between those with access to the Internet and other modern technologies and those without.
According to a Pew Research Center report from 2013, 70 percent of U.S. adults have a high-speed Internet connection at home. Only 54 percent of households with earnings less than $30,000 a year do. The FCC says low-income Americans are more likely to rely on smartphones for Internet access. According to the Pew report, 67 percent of households that make less than $30,000 a year have home broadband or a smartphone.
“Voice is no longer sufficient to be able to participate in society today,” said Harold Feld of Public Knowledge, a consumer advocacy group. “The broad assumption is that you’ve got broadband access somehow.”
Lifeline has been criticized for being susceptible to fraud, and the proposal may get pushback from Republicans.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said in a statement Thursday that the FCC has “failed to manage Lifeline efficiently in its current form, and I cannot support any expansion of a program.”
FCC commissioners will vote in June on whether to proceed with expanding Lifeline to broadband service. In 2014, Lifeline served 12 million households and cost $1.7 billion, paid for by surcharges on the country’s telephone customer bills.
