TracFone Wireless, announced the launch of SafeLink Wireless in most of Georgia.
SafeLink Wireless will serve as the company’s distribution of Lifeline -
a U.S. government supported program for income eligible households that
ensures telephone service is available and affordable for eligible
low-income households.
The SafeLink Wireless service will provide eligible low-income
households a free cell phone, mobile access to emergency services and
free 68 minutes of air time, monthly, for one year. The cell phone
offers in-demand features: voicemail, text, call waiting, international
calling to over 60 destinations and caller ID.
To learn more about
SafeLink Wireless, including
eligibility requirements, please call
1-800-977-3768 or visit
safelinkwireless.com. You can get refill your Tracfone Wireless Airtime here.
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The SafeLink Wireless service will be provided to low-income families
for up to one year. Participants may renew service and will be required
to re-submit eligibility documentation upon their year completion. If
the participant no longer qualifies for this free service, they will be
notified and will be able to keep the cell phone to continue enjoying
the benefits as a regular TracFone customer. Unused minutes will never
expire and will automatically rollover. When recipients surpass their
allocated 68 airtime minutes, they will be able to purchase prepaid
SafeLink Wireless airtime cards or TracFone airtime cards, including
double minute cards. Existing TracFone customers qualifying for the
SafeLink Wireless service may keep their current cell phone, and receive
bonus minutes (one-time bonus only) for choosing to keep their current
cell phone.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) created the Lifeline program
in 1984 and worked to update the service after the crises of Hurricanes
Katrina and Ike, as well as the tragedy of September 11th. At the dawn
of the 21st century, modern universal telephone service is necessary not
only to ensure that the U.S. maintains a rapid, efficient, nationwide
communications network, it is important for the purpose of national
defense and to promote safety of life and property. By approving the
SafeLink Wireless program, the FCC took action to enhance its Lifeline
program and keep the right to communicate in pace with technology.
The Funding of Lifeline
Lifeline is part of the Low Income Program of the Universal Service Fund
(USF), which is administered by the Universal Service Administrative
Company (USAC) and is designed to ensure that quality telecommunications
services are available to low-income customers at just, reasonable, and
affordable rates. 1700 carriers are eligible to provide the program but
TracFone is the first pre-paid company to have elevated the program to
modern day communications.
The Lifeline program is not funded from federal taxpayer dollars, but
rather from contributions to the USF by telecommunications carriers
collected in part from the Universal Service Charge billed to cell phone
users. Instead of a discount on the user’s monthly bill, SafeLink
applies the USF subsidy to free wireless minutes. Although a common
misconception, TracFone provides the free wireless cell phone to the
SafeLink program at the company’s expense, in order to make the program
viable and attractive.
13 Georgia counties will not
immediately benefit
As a condition to participate in the offering of Lifeline, the FCC
mandated that SafeLink be certified E9-1-1 compliant by each 9-1-1
Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) within the state of Georgia. Of the
164 PSAPs in Georgia, PSAPs in the following 13 counties have not
responded to repeated requests for certification: Bacon, Baker,
Bleckley, Camden, Charlton, Echols, Emanuel, Hancock, Lowndes, McIntosh,
Talbot, Terrell, and Twiggs counties.
Due to the lack of certification, 27,781 qualified households in the 13
Georgia counties will not immediately benefit until their corresponding
PSAPs certify. To date, SafeLink efforts to secure statewide
certification has included reaching out to Governor Sonny Purdue and the
Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA), the agency that oversees
emergency communications throughout the state. Both offices declined to
assist stating that PSAP certifications were a local issue.
“The citizens of the 13 Georgia counties where SafeLink Wireless is not
yet present is an unacceptable situation, as it is denying hard working,
struggling families the basic right to communicate,” said Fuentes. “The
Lifeline program at its core was created to benefit the very rural
families that are being denied that service, which makes the refusal to
provide E911 certification fundamentally wrong and irresponsible from an
entity that is truly supposed to be a lifeline for all people in times
of emergency and crisis.”