More than a Lifeline: Low-Income Households’ Telecommunications Preferences

Abstract

Florida’s Lifeline program is part of a nationwide program to increase the availability of telecommunications services to low-income households by providing a credit to monthly recurring charges for local telephone service. In Florida, households can receive up to a $13.50 discount on their monthly local phone bills. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established the Lifeline program in the belief that low-income households find landline local telephone service to be essential for their social and economic livelihoods, and that a discount on the price for landline telephone service was needed to make the service affordable. There is mounting evidence that these assumptions do not hold true today. In 2005, about 90 percent of low-income households in Florida subscribed to landline telephone service even though only about 13 percent of the households eligible for Lifeline took the discount. Furthermore, about half of the low-income households were purchasing cellular phone service. We undertake this study to better understand low-income households’ choices with respect to communications services and participation in Lifeline. We employ surveys and statistical analyses to study Floridians’ participation in Lifeline and their choices for communications services.