Several civil rights organizations asked the FCC to reconsider its...
Several civil rights organizations asked the FCC to reconsider its February decision to deny Lifeline support for payphones. In a letter to Chairman Julius Genachowski, the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, National Black Chamber of Commerce and others warned that…
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very low-income people could be harmed if payphones don’t get any Lifeline funding. “Just as the exploitation of the poor by prison ‘payphones’ is wrong, it would be just as wrong if the nation lost the legitimate pay telephone business upon which the lowest income Americans depend for essential communications,” they said. The commission’s decision to exclude payphones from Lifeline because they're not linked to specific individual program beneficiaries “overlooked the fact that the nature of a payphone is that it is there to serve everyone,” they said. Letting the service “die out” would be a “grave mistake, a disservice to the poor and to those finding themselves lost in an emergency,” they said. They asked the commission to open a proceeding to “explore all aspects of payphone service and how they can continue to provide service.” Without action by the commission, the groups said they expect payphones to completely disappear within a year or two.