But What About Obama Phone?

“Hold up, I gotta put some minutes on my Obama phone,” said my friend Terrance, back in 2011. But I heard him mention “Obama Phone” in subsequent years. And when he first told me about this thing that sounded extra fake, I couldn’t help but imagine it was a direct line to the White House to speak to the President. But curiosity over-rode the fear of sounding like an idiot so I asked, “You can call the White House with that?”

He laughed, for a good ten minutes or so, but never explained what he was going on about. We went off and had drinks after that. And through the years I just gleaned that the program was made available through the government to provide cell-phone access to millions (13.3 million in 2013) of lower-class people, particularly minorities, who would not normally be able to afford them.

Now, I know exactly how this thing works.

Apparently Reagan did do some good for the black community. Way back in 1985, Lifeline, a program run by the FCC began. It provided affordable phone service for these low-income owners, a huge relief for those unable to afford Sprint and AT&T and the late-fees these companies love tacking on. Funnily enough, according to The Atlantic, the plan was created in order to break up the monopoly AT&T had on telecommunications back in 1983.

At the time, the phones themselves weren’t paid for, so a low-income person had to pay to get the phone, and pay a small amount for service. The FCC website shows a $9.25 a month charge for service in 2017. That’s for 500 minutes and 3G broadband.

Then, because of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, companies had to contribute to a fund in order to build more phone poles and towers, and to provide more services to make phones even more accessible to, primarily blacks and browns, and people living in the country. More phone towers in more areas and landlines to schools in rural neighborhoods, because, well, in case of an emergency, or something.

In my opinion, they were idiots for not laying this out in the initial draft of the thing. It’s called Lifeline for a reason — to provide a lifeline to people most vulnerable and at the greatest risk of needing a phone and not having one.

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