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OT pays for everyone to have an "obamaphone"

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
I wonder if the increase, since 2008, would pay for meat inspectors? Which is more valuable to the "collective"?

At least the obamaphone owners will be able to call for help, when they get food poisoning...


Millions Improperly Claimed U.S. Phone Subsidies
By SPENCER E. ANTE

The U.S. government spent about $2.2 billion last year to provide phones to low-income Americans, but a Wall Street Journal review of the program shows that a large number of those who received the phones haven't proved they are eligible to receive them.

WSJ's Spencer Ante has details of a $2.2 billion government program to give cell phones to poor people that resulted in phones winding up in the hands of people ineligible for the program.

The Lifeline program—begun in 1984 to ensure that poor people aren't cut off from jobs, families and emergency services—is funded by charges that appear on the monthly bills of every landline and wireless-phone customer. Payouts under the program have shot up from $819 million in 2008, as more wireless carriers have persuaded regulators to let them offer the service.

Suspecting that many of the new subscribers were ineligible, the Federal Communications Commission tightened the rules last year and required carriers to verify that existing subscribers were eligible. The agency estimated 15% of users would be weeded out, but far more were dropped.

A review of five top recipients of Lifeline support conducted by the FCC for the Journal showed that 41% of their more than six million subscribers either couldn't demonstrate their eligibility or didn't respond to requests for certification.

The carriers—AT&T Inc.; Telrite Corp.; Tag Mobile USA; Verizon Communications Inc.; and the Virgin Mobile USA unit of Sprint Nextel Corp.—accounted for 34% of total Lifeline subscribers last May. Two of the other largest providers, TracFone Wireless Inc. and Nexus Communications Inc., asked the FCC to keep their counts confidential. Results for the full program weren't available.

The program is open to people who meet federal poverty guidelines or are on food stamps, Medicaid or other assistance programs, and only one Lifeline subscriber is allowed per household.

The program, which is administered by the nonprofit Universal Service Administrative Co., has grown rapidly as wireless carriers persuaded regulators to let people use the program for cellphone service. It pays carriers $9.25 a customer per month toward free or discounted wireless service.

Americans pay an average of $2.50 a month per household to fund a number of subsidized communications programs, including Lifeline.

For the carriers, the program is a chance for them to sign up more subscribers and make a small profit, plus more money if customers go over their small initial allotment and need to buy more minutes or text messages. Carriers can set prices for their Lifeline subscribers as the companies wish.

Until last year, FCC rules didn't require carriers to certify to the FCC that subscribers were eligible. Consumers could self-certify, and in many states documentation wasn't required.

Carriers said many of the disqualified subscribers simply didn't reply when asked to prove their eligibility. They also said the FCC rules on self-certification, and the absence of a national database of participants, made it hard to keep ineligible people from signing up.

The FCC said it is investigating allegations that some Lifeline providers violated the rules, though it declined to comment on that probe. Carriers that don't properly confirm eligibility can be fined up to $150,000 for each violation for each day of a continuing violation, up to a maximum of $1.5 million. In egregious cases, a carrier could lose its ability to participate in the program.

Telrite said it confirms Lifeline eligibility but said it had been difficult to verify the one-phone-per-household rule.

A Verizon spokesman said the "vast majority" of the subscribers removed from its rolls didn't respond to eligibility checks. While Sprint found that some of its subscribers were no longer eligible, it, too, found that many others didn't respond, a person familiar with the carrier's operations said.

AT&T hadn't detected the ineligible subscribers because customers self-certified under old rules and because some states required the company to provide Lifeline service to people enrolled in certain state assistance programs, according to a person familiar with the company's thinking.

Tag Mobile didn't respond to requests for comment.

TracFone Chief Executive F.J. Pollak declined to say how many customers his company shed. Nexus Communications didn't respond to a request for comment.

Two years ago General Communication Inc. paid more than $1.5 million to settle allegations that Alaska DigiTel LLC, an Alaskan company it owns, submitted false claims to the FCC for more than four years. General Communication said the alleged misuse occurred before the company took day-to-day control of Alaska DigiTel.

Lifeline users have been a source of subscriber growth in the otherwise saturated U.S. market and helped fuel the expansion of companies like TracFone, now the fifth-largest U.S. wireless carrier.

The FCC until last year allowed consumers to self-certify, without requiring documentation, that they met federal poverty guidelines. Subscribers didn't have to recertify once they were enrolled in the program, and there were few checks on whether households signed up for more than one cellphone.

"The program rules we inherited were designed for the age of the rotary phone and failed to protect the program from abuse," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said.

The agency pushed through new rules last year, requiring documentation when a Lifeline customer signs up. Consumers also must certify that no one else in their households is using the program. Carriers now have to check a state or federal social-service database to confirm eligibility and must reverify eligibility every year.

Carriers were required by Jan. 31 to report the number of subscribers they had removed from Lifeline as of the end of last year. The data reviewed by The Wall Street Journal came from those reports.

The FCC said new verification procedures saved nearly $214 million last year, and projected total savings over the next three years would reach $2 billion. Disbursements under the program began to drop in the third quarter after 12 consecutive quarters of increases.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323511804578296001368122888.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection
 

okfarmer

Well-known member
http://www.newson6.com/story/19914572/oklahoma-is-ground-zero-for-government-cell-phone-fraud

Oklahoma Is Ground Zero For Government Cell Phone Fraud

BARTLESVILLE, Oklahoma -

It's a government program designed to help low-income Americans afford phone service, but even after it was reformed for lack of oversight, we found it's still rampant with fraud.

The Tip

Dee Anderson lives in Bartlesville and considers herself well-informed when it comes to government spending.

"I'm sick of all the freebies and the government waste," said Anderson.

Anderson said she couldn't believe the waste that was happening in her town as it was inundated with tents advertising free cell phones. She said she was furious to find out people she knew were given free government subsidized cell phones from those tents even though they didn't need them and didn't qualify for them.

"It's just not right," said Anderson. "It just infuriates me. I just get so mad about it."

Cell phone companies typically set up the tents in low-income areas, some even have lines of people waiting into the night to get free phones. Sometimes vendors do business out of their cars, topped with free cell phone signs or banners. At least one vendor operates out of a house in Oklahoma City. Vendors at those "free cell phone" tents are giving away free cell phones as they sign people up for a federal program called Lifeline.

The Lifeline Program

Under the Lifeline program, qualifying consumers could pay as little as 99 cents a month for cell phone service. The government pays the rest through the Lifeline program. In Oklahoma, companies could get as much as $35 per month per phone, plus the cost of the actual phone.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, Lifeline began in 1985 to ensure all Americans have the opportunities and security that phone service brings, connecting them to jobs, family and emergency services. It was expanded to include cell phones in 2003.

According to the FCC, the number of low-income households with phones increased from 80 percent in 1985 to 95 percent in 2011.

If you pay a phone bill, you're likely paying for the Lifeline program through universal service charges. According to the FCC, the average universal service charge is $2.50-$2.75 per household. That means the average household pays $30 to $33 a year for all of the programs under the Universal Service Administrative Company, or USAC. In 2011, the Lifeline program spent $1.75 billion of the money USAC collected.

Click here to see where your money goes

The problems

Anderson contacted the Oklahoma Impact Team after conducting an experiment in Bartlesville. She said she wanted to see how easy it would be to rip off the government. Anderson said she waited in line at a tent, wearing her personal smart phone on her hip, to see if the vendor would give her a free phone even though she doesn't qualify. He did.

"Anybody can get them. They say it's a lifeline... they're for needy people. I'm not needy and I went up and I got one with no ID no proof of income, nothing," said Anderson.

The FCC has admitted it's lost hundreds of millions of Lifeline dollars to fraud, waste and abuse. It acknowledges that companies have broken several Lifeline rules, giving cell phones to unqualified people and giving multiple phones to people who create duplicate Lifeline accounts.

The Reforms

According to the FCC the agency reviewed 7 million Lifeline subscribers last year and discovered 700,000 duplicate accounts. The agency also reviewed nearly 177,000 Oklahoma subscribers and eliminated nearly 8,000 of them for various violations. The agency says those revisions will save $3 million annually.

To cut down on fraud, waste and abuse in the future the FCC drastically reformed the Lifeline program this summer, writing more stringent rules for companies to follow.

Click here to read the FCC's reform order

To legally qualify people must now show a valid ID and some sort of proof that their income is below the poverty line or that they already receive one of the following government benefits:

• Medicaid
• Food Stamps
• SSI
• Section 8 Housing
• Headstart
• TANF
• Free Lunch Program
• BIA General Assistance
• TTANF
• FDPIR
• LIHEAP

All of the tent workers we talked to said the reforms are working. They said they never give phones to unqualified people and always check to ensure customers don't create duplicate accounts.

"The way I try to do it is try to make sure that every customer, when they sign up they have to show me valid ID and their food stamp card or Medicaid card or whatever," said one tent worker.

The Hidden Camera Investigation

We wanted to see if tent workers really were following the rules, so we went undercover, wired with hidden cameras. Out of nine free cell phone stands, three were willing to break the rules.

• Workers in one Tulsa tent told our producers they could have a phone without proof they qualified--just an ID.

• A worker at an Oklahoma City cell phone stand said he'd meet me at the flea market and give me a phone, no questions asked. He said, "Like the only way I could give you a phone is if you go on Saturday to the flea market… I have phones there and I don't ask for anything."

• At a tent in Oklahoma City, a worker on a smoke break said he would "make it happen" and gave me a phone even though I didn't show my ID and didn't have proof I qualified for a phone.

The man who gave me the phone identified himself as an employee of Easy Wireless. He gave me a flip phone, a charger and a post card with a toll-free customer service number for Easy Wireless. The card also says, "We believe having reliable cell phone service is a right, not a privilege."

Click here to read the Easy Wireless card

Easy Telephone Services Company broke many of the rules they pledged to abide by in an FCC compliance plan.

We've only used the phone a few times to call Easy Wireless, which is actually called Easy Telephone Services Company, based out of Florida. Our calls were never returned.

The Oklahoma Connection

It turns out dozens of wireless companies are flocking to Oklahoma, setting up tents, seeking to profit from a special tribal provision in the Lifeline law. In most states, cell phone companies are only eligible to receive $10 per month per phone, but companies that give away phones on former tribal lands receive up to an extra $25 per month per phone from the government. That means companies doing business here are eligible to receive up to $35 per phone per month. Unlike other states, that tribal provision covers almost all of Oklahoma.

One former tent worker told us each employee was required, by the company, to give away 50 phones a day. She said, at the beginning of last summer, the company gave her no rules to follow and she was giving out cell phones as fast as she could. Once the Lifeline reforms went into place, she said it was more difficult to meet her quota each month, but that customers found ways to get around the new rules.

Our calculations show, if all of that company's employees meet those quotas, it has the potential to gross $50-80 million a year off the Lifeline program, in just one city.

There are currently 45 companies certified to enroll people in Lifeline in Oklahoma. Between January and August 2012, those companies received $121,199,249 in Lifeline reimbursements.

The "Regulators"

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission approves licenses for phone companies to work in Oklahoma. A spokesperson says the OCC has been inundated with applications since cell phones became part of the Lifeline program. Currently there are close to fifty companies offering Lifeline service in Oklahoma. But an OCC spokesman says when it comes to enforcing Lifeline rules the state's hands are tied. He says only the feds can reprimand companies for fraud, they're just not doing it.

"I can't see where the FCC or the federal government's really taking any action to corral the abuse or fraud," said Jim Jones of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.

The FCC is the enforcement arm of the program and it has threatened companies with fines, jail time and the loss of their license if they're caught breaking the rules. However, when we pressed the agency to show us how they've enforced the Lifeline rules a spokesman could only point us to one case where a company was actually punished. He says they're still refining that part of the Lifeline program.

I would cut and paste, but it all seems pretty ridiculous and worth reading.
 

okfarmer

Well-known member
I'm not fancy enough to embed them, so you'll just have to click on the link. But a little more astonishing information about it all.

http://www.newson6.com/category/121535/video-page?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8352934

OT can have his internet, water and phone for free. No wonder he isn't worried about the cost of energy.
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
A travesty.

That's $2.2 billion that could have been spent on Hellfire missles to take out suspicious-looking Americans. :???: :???: :???:
 

okfarmer

Well-known member
Whitewing said:
A travesty.

That's $2.2 billion that could have been spent on Hellfire missles to take out suspicious-looking Americans. :???: :???: :???:

or think of all the bankers that aren't getting bonuses...
or all the borther hood members without a tank and rocket launcher
or getting rid of a few hundred thousand more unwanted babies

the list can just go on and on. Pretty sad :cry:
 
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