If you liked the government’s “free Safelink cell phones for the poor scam,” you’re going to love the new “free high-speed internet access for the poor” program. Or as we like to call it, the precursor to free internet radio, free internet TV, and free internet movies for all.
Unfortunately, that free internet service isn’t coming from companies like NetZero.com or Google TiSP. It’s coming from the government. Which means you, the American taxpayer, will be paying for someone else’s free internet.
Arstechnica.com tells the tale of our new free broadband Big Brother:
Former FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate is back with a vague plan to get Big Government away from “dictating what Americans ‘should’ get or what is ‘best for them'” when it comes to broadband. Forget setting mediocre targets, like the “4Mbps for all Americans by 2010” goal of the National Broadband Plan. Instead, just give people vouchers for really crappy broadband service and the problem will take care of itself.”
Tate actually thinks it’s good sales technique to describe the program as food stamps for broadband or “broadband stamps.” Great.
Tate wants to give low-income Americans a broadband voucher with which they could pay for a “minimum broadband package.” In case you’re wondering, Tate’s definition of “minimum” is “enough bytes to surf the web and send e-mails to family members.”
Of course, Tate claims she doesn’t want to make this one of those government giveaways. No, a thousand times no. Her plan will assure that this “circumscribed” broadband offers only basic internet access. So if you want to surf porn all day, well, damn it, you’ll just have to pay for it yourself. (At least that’s the theory).
We’ll just see how long that part of the program survives. Because if there’s one thing that leftists and big government advocates cannot abide, it is the thought of an entitlement program that actually requires the recipients to use “their own money.” They have no qualms, however, about using yours.
Tate thinks that by providing vouchers for minimal services, ISPs would see a massive influx of new customers and be prompted to make additional offerings available in urban and rural areas. We used to call this free enterprise, but now it is commonly referred to as an evil capitalist plot.
Arstechnica.com says, “This, to put it mildly, is dubious. People too poor to afford broadband in the first place are unlikely to sign up to the lucrative ‘triple plays’ that every cable and telco is desperate to offer.”
If you’re saying to yourself, this sounds remarkably similar to the free government phone scam, you are very perceptive. A current FCC plan called Recommendation 9:1 authorizes the SafeLink Wireless program and Tate’s “free internet for the poor” scam builds on that concept, which already supplies the free phone service to approximately 7 million households.
Recommendation 9:1 also says “The FCC and states should require eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) to permit Lifeline customers to apply Lifeline discounts to any service or package that includes basic voice service. By clarifying that Lifeline consumers can apply the current Lifeline discount to any offering that includes voice and data service, the FCC and states can help low-income consumers benefit from the same discounts provided through bundled service offerings that are affordable to wealthier households in the United States. Many of these bundled offerings include broadband services. Letting consumers apply their Lifeline discounts to bundled offerings will help make broadband more affordable.”
The recommendation also states that “Forty percent of adults with household incomes less than $20,000 have broadband at home, compared to 93% with household incomes greater than $75,000. Many people with low incomes simply cannot afford the costs associated with having a broadband connection at home. To make broadband more affordable and overcome some of the barriers that have kept the penetration rate for these households low, the FCC should extend low-income universal service support to broadband.”
Today, free broadband. Tomorrow, free internet radio. Free internet TV. Hell, everything’s free, free, free. Except to the taxpayer.
Unfortunately, it’s not difficult to see where this one’s going. Free internet access is just as worthless without a computer as free cell phone minutes are without a cell phone.
So just as SafeLink Wireless offers free cell phones with free monthly minutes, it won’t be long until a government program is proposed to offer the poor free computers on which to use their free internet access.
Source: Arstechnica.com
