Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

And Dubya also deserved the Bushphone moniker.

https://www.benton.org/blog/lifeline-where-did-it-come

Thus, universal service offerings were not to be locked into the wired analog services of 1996 as we have moved into the wireless digital world of 2015.

There are now four programs paid for by the Universal Service Fund. The money in this fund does not come from taxes, but from fees paid by wireless and landline telephone subscribers based on their long distance and international usage. (Look at your phone bill; you will see the fee enumerated.) In addition to Lifeline, there is a “Connect America” fund which supports high cost rural connectivity, the so-called “E-rate” subsidizing schools and libraries and a Rural Healthcare fund.

Based on the evolving principles contemplated by Section 254, the FCC made two significant changes in 2005, during the George W. Bush Administration. First, it ruled that wireless carriers could be ETCs (“eligible telecommunications carriers”) so they could provide universal service offerings. Second, it lifted the requirement that ETCs must own the facilities they use; this permitted companies like TracFone, which leases wireless services on systems operated by Sprint and other major “facilities based” providers.

This, then, is what created the conditions for the widespread availability of free or low cost wireless services. Using the funds provided by the Universal Service Fund, companies like TracFone can afford to provide free or almost-free handsets to customers and give them some basic voice and texting service. In short, what has become known as the “Obamaphone.”